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I.IBRARV 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 

OIKX  OK 

Received      Jfl^V-i^^ui^         .  iSg/  . 
Accession  No. C?&^^^       .    Class  No. 


'^Ijy         ^      %^      f^ 

Constitutional 
Caws  -^  ■*  ^ 


■••••••••••a 


Tor  tbc  ^  ^  ^ 
Island  of  Cuba. 

\$^T^^  jfi  jfi  jfi 


» 


f 


O-  .     \X/~y\j^y(yjD 


THE  NEW 


CoisTiTiiTioML  Laws 


FOR  CUBA. 


TEXT     OF     THE     RECENT     MEASURES     FOR     THE 
SELF-GOVERNMENT   OF   THE    ISLAND, 
WITH  COMMENTS  THEREON.     • 


Also  a  Brief  Review  of  the  Evolution  ok  Spanish  Colonization, 

AND     a     Statistical     Comparison     of     the     Progress 

OK    Cuba    Under    Spanish    Rule   with  That  ok 


Independent^Spanish- American 


ss::^ 


or  THX 


iTJHITir&SITT] 


juntries.  — ^ 


NEW  YORK : 

Published  by  the  Associated   Spanish   and  Cuban  Press, 

Bowling  Green  Building,  11  Broadway. 

1897. 


6-^ 


w^-^f 


TO    HIS    EXCELLENCY 

DON    ENRIQUE    dS^UY    de    LOME, 

SPANISH    MINISTER   IN  WASHINGTON, 

WHO  HAS  WITH  SUCH  DIPLOMATIC  SKILL  PROMOTED  THE    FRIENDLY  AND  HONORABLE  RELATIONS  BETWEEN 

SPAIN    AND  THE  UNITED  STATES,  WHILE    UPHOLDING  WITH   PATRIOTIC  ZEAL 

AND  EFFICIENCY  THE  INALIENABLE  RIGHTS  OF 

SPAIN    IN  AMERICA, 

THIS  WORK    IS    RESPECTFULLY  DEDICATED. 


:li^ 


lO 


.(>^ 


CONTKNTS. 


^      i3 


Methods  of  Early  Si'amsh  Colonization. — Evolution  of  the 
Modern  Colonial  Polity  of  Si'ain. — The  Latest  Measure 
of  Home  Rule  Granted  to  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  Compared 
with  the  Political  System  in  Other  Foreign  Colonies. 

By   ARTURO  CUYAS. 


PART  SECOND. 

Expository  Preamble  and  Royal  Decree  Sanctioning  the  Plan 
FOR  THE  Extension  in  Scope  of  the  Abarzuza  Reform  Law 
of  1895.  -  Commentary  :  Expressions  of  Opinion  by  Party 
Leaders  and  the  Press. — Text  of  the  Abarzuza  Law. 

By  ANTONIO  CUYAS. 


PART  THIRD. 

Political  and  Social  Condition  of  the  Island  of  Cuba. — Sta- 
tistics of  Its  Wealth  and  Commercial  Movement. — Its 
Progress  Under  Spanish  Rule  Compared  with  That  of 
Independent  Spanish-American  Countries. 

By  L.  V.  ABAD  DE  LAS  CASAS. 


!Part  J^irst. 

I.  Tl^ethods  of  £ar/y   Spanish    Coioni'zati'on, 

II.  Cvoluti'on  of  the  9//ociern  Coioni'ai  !Poiicy 

of  Spain. 

III.  TJhe  a£atest  Measure  of  jffome  !^uie 
Sranted  to  Cuba  and  tPorto  S/^ico  Com- 
pared with  the  ^oiitical  System  in 
Other   ^oreiyn    Colonies, 

^y  ylrturo  Cui/as, 


riETHODS  OF  EARLY  SPANISH  COLONIZATION. 

In  the  history  of  nations  Spain  stands   foremost  as  the       spain  as 


Discoverer  and 
Colonizer. 


discoverer,  conquerer  and  colonizer  of  new  lands. 

By  the  discovery  of  a  new  world,  and  the  subjection  of 
numberless  tribes  the  Crown  of  Castile  found  itself 
toward  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  undis- 
puted possessor  of  such  a  vast  domain  as  never  before  nor 
since  came  under  the  sway  of  a  single  nation. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  men  who,  moved  princi- 
pally by  the  restless  spirit  of  adventure  which  was  the 
dominant  characteristic  of  that  period,  discovered  and 
conquered  the  New  World,  the  paternal  solicitude  and 
care  of  the  Crown  and  its  Councilors  for  the  welfare  of 
the  subjugated  Indians  were  made  evident  by  wise  laws, 
which  stand  as  a  monument  of  early  civilization  in 
America. 

An  eminent  Cuban  Autonomist,  Senor  Rafael  M.  Labra, 
for  many  years  a  Representative  from  Cuba  in  the  Spanish  . 
Cortes,  in  his  critical  "  History  of  Colonization,"  to  which 
I  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  again,  frankly  admits  that 
"by  framing  the  famous  Laws  of  the  Indies,  Spain  justly 
laid  claim  to  an  enduring  civilization,  and  to  the  fore- 
most place  among  the  great  colonizing  nations  of  modern 
times."* 

English  historians  have  never  been  willing  to  give  Spain    English  His- 

Tiiei  in-  •  -!•  torians  Unjust 

the    credit   due    her   for    her    early  eiiorts  m  spreading      to  Spain. 
Christianity  and  civilization  among  the  savage  tribes  of 
the  New  World.     On  the  contrary,  race  prejudice  and  the 
chagrin  caused  by  Spain's  achievements  and  her  aggran- 

*  Labra,  "  La  Colonizacion  en  la  Historia,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  47. 

—  1]—  , 


dizement  in  that  epoch,  and  possibly  also  the  contrast  of 
the  humane  and  paternal  methods  adopted  by  Spain  with 
the  policy  of  extermination  which  characterized  the 
British  treatment  of  the  Indians,  have  made  English 
historians  virulent  and  bitter  and  notoriously  unjust  in 
their  criticism  of  Spanish  colonization. 

A  contributor  to  the  Irisli  World  has  justly  remarked  in 
a  recent  issue  of  that  paper : 
Calumnies  "  Johu  Mitchell  has  said,  in  the  preface  to  one  of  his 

Handed  Dawn. 

historical  works,  that  the  greatest  conquest  England  ever 
made  was  to  gain  the  ear  of  the  world.  And  so  true  is 
this  that  even  we,  Irish  and  Irish- Americans,  knowing  as 
we  do  her  falseness  and  her  craft,  accept  as  gospel  truth 
the  calumnies  handed  down  from  one  generation  to  another 
of  English  historians,  and  repeated  by  Anglo-American 
historians,  of  England's  hereditary  enemy — Spain."* 

To  such  calumnies  must  be  ascribed  the  false  views  pre- 
vailing in  the  United  States  in  regard  to  Spain,  its  history, 
its  laws,  its  customs  and  its  manners. 
The  New  Fortunately,   a   dispassionate   observer,   a   scholar   and 

American  His-  historian,  A.  F.  Bandclier,  a  pupil  of  the  great  Humboldt, 
has  founded  in  this  country  a  new  school  for  the  study  of 
American  history  and  for  historical  research ;  and  one  of 
the  results  of  the  well  directed  labors  of  that  school  has 
been  the  publication  in  Chicago  of  a  most  interesting, 
fascinating  and  truthful  book  by  Chas.  F.  Lummis,  en- 
titled "The  Spanish  Pioneers." 

In  the  preface  of  this  book  the  following  sentences  occur : 
"That  we  have  not  given  justice  to  the  Spanish  pioneers 
is  simply  because  we  have  been  misled.  They  made  a 
record  unparalleled;  but  our  text  books  have  not  recog- 
nized that  fact,  though  they  no  longer  dare  dispute  it. 
Now,  thanks  to  the  new  school  of  American  history,  we 
are   coming  to   the   truth — a   truth   which   every   manly 

*  M.  S.  in  the  Irish  World,  March  13,  1897. 

—12— 


tory. 


American  will  be  sflad  to  know.     We  love  manhood,  and     Manhood  of 

*  '  the    Spanish 

the  Spanish  pioneering  of  the  Americas  was  the  largest       Pioneers. 
and  longest  and  most  marvelous  feat  of  manhood  in  all 
history.     It  was  not  possible  for  a  Saxon  boy  to  learn  that 
truth  in  my  boyhood ;  it  is  enormously  difficult,  if  possible, 
now." 

And  so  with  the  record  of  Spanish  colonization  and  civ- 
ilization of  the  New  World.  To  quote  again  from  the 
same  author : 

' '  When  you  know  that  the  greatest  of  English  text 
books  has  not  even  the  name  of  the  man  who  first  sailed 
around  the  world  (a  Spaniard),  nor  of  the  man  who  dis- 
covered Brazil  (a  Spaniard),  nor  of  him  who  discovered 
California  (a  Spaniard),  nor  of  those  Spaniards  who  first 
found  and  colonized  in  what  is  now  the  United  States,  and 
that  it  has  a  hundred  other  omissions  as  glaring  and  a 
hundred  histories  as  untrue  as  the  omissions  are  inexcus- 
able, you  will  understand  that  it  is  high  time  we  should  do 
better  justice  than  did  our  fathers  to  a  subject  which 
should  be  of  the  first  interest  to  all  real  Americans. 

"  The  Spanish  were  not  only  the  first  conquerers  of  the  Spaniards  the 

,    ^  •'  ^  First  Civil. 

New  World  and  its  first  colonizers,  but  also  its  first  civil-  izers. 
izers.  They  built  the  first  cities,  opened  the  first  churches, 
schools  and  universities ;  brought  the  first  printing  presses, 
made  the  first  books,  wrote  the  first  dictionaries,  histories 
and  geographies,  and  brought  the  first  missionaries;  and 
before  New  England  had  a  real  newspaper  Mexico  had  a 
seventeenth  century  attempt  at  one  ! 

' '  One  of  the  wonderful  things  about  this  Spanish  pioneer- 
ing— ^almost  as  remarkable  as  the  pioneering  itself — was 
the  humane  and  progressive  spirit  which  marked  it  from 
first  to  last.  T'Histories  of  the  sort  long  current  speak  of 
that  hero  nation  as  cruel  to  the  Indians;  but  in  truth  the 
record  of  Spain  in  that  respect  puts  us  to  the  blush.  The 
legislation  of  Spain  in  behalf  of  the  Indians  everywhere 
was  incomparably  more  extensive,  more  comprehen 


Humane  and    more  Systematic  and  more   humane  than   that   of  Great 

Progressive 

Spirit  of  Span-  Britain,  the  Colonies  and  the  present  United  States  all 
combined.  Those  first  teachers  gave  the  Spanish  langfuage 
and  Christian  faith  to  a  thousand  aborigfines  where  we 
gave  a  new  language  and  religion  to  one.  There  have 
been  Spanish  schools  for  Indians  in  America  since  1524. 
By  1575 — nearly  a  century  before  there  was  a  printing 
press  in  English  America — many  books  in  twelve  different 
Indian  languages  had  been  printed  in  the  City  of  Mexico, 
whereas  in  our  history  John  Eliot's  Indian  Bible  stands 
alone;  and  three  Spanish  universities  in  America  were 
nearly  rounding  out  their  century  when  Harvard  was 
founded.  A  surprisingly  large  proportion  of  the  pioneers 
of  America  were  college  men ;  and  intelligence  went  hand 
in  hand  with  heroism  in  the  early  settlement  of  the  New 
World."* 
Spain  Not  No  attempt  shall  be   made  here  to  excuse,  palliate  or 

for   Individual  condouc  the  hcinous  deeds  of  some  of  the  men  who  first 

Hisdeeds,      ^^^  £^^^  -^^  America.     Taken  by  themselves  they  should  be 

strongly  condemned;  but  such  individual  misdeeds  should 

not  be  imputed  to  the  whole  Spanish  nation,  nor  be  made 

the  only  salient  feature  of  early  Spanish  colonization. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  "  it  was  in  the  very  year 
of  the  discovery  of  America  that  the  Spaniards,  in  the 
conquest  of  Granada,  had  finished  their  eight  centuries 
of  continuous  war  for  wresting  their  proud  country  from 
the  invading  Moors.  This  war  had  made  every  Spaniard 
a  fighter  and  every  infidel  an  enemy  exempted  from 
all  tolerance  and  mercy."** 

As  the  well  equipped  historian  Prescott  says  in  his 
preface  to  the  ' '  History  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico  "  :  "  The 
distance  of  the  present  age  from  the  period  of  the  narrative 
might  be   presumed   to  secure   the  historian  from  undue 

*  "  The  Spanish  Pioneers,"  p.  23. 

**  George  Edward  Ellis  in  "Narrative  and  Critical  History  of 
America,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  301. 

—14— 


prejudice  or  partiality.     Yet,  to  American   and    English   circumstances 
readers,  acknowledging  so  different  a  moral  standard  from      should  Be 
that  of  the  sixteenth  century,  I  may  possibly  be  thought  ^'"■"* '"  "'"''• 
too  indulgent  to  the  errors  of  the  conquerors.     To  such  I 
can  only  say  that  while,  on  the  one  hand,  I  have  not  hesi- 
tated to  expose  in  their  strongest  colors  the  excesses  of  the 
conquerors,  on  the  other,  I  have  given  them  the  benefit  of 
such  mitigating  reflections  as  might  be  suggested  by  the 
circumstances  and  the  period  in  which  they  lived." 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  "  what  are  considered  now 
as  self-evident  truths  about  uniyersal  rights  were  far 
enough  from  being  self-evident  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
On  the  contrary,  they  were  extremely  unfamiliar  and  ab- 
struse conceptions,  toward  which  the  most  enlightened 
minds  could  only  grope  their  way  by  slow  degrees."* 

* '  We  must  take  care  not  to  identify  too  indiscriminately    Perpetrators 

of  Horrors 

the  Spaniards,  as  such,  with  the  horrors   perpetrated   in     Behaved  as 
Hispaniola.      It  was  not  in  the  character  of  Spaniards  so    ^  Spaniards. 
much  as  in  the  character  of  ruffians  that  the   perpetrators 
behaved,   and    there   have   been    ruffians   enough    among 
people  who  speak  English."** 

"A  great  deal  of  sentimental  ink  has  been  shed  over 
the  wickedness  of  the  Spaniards  in  crossing  the  ocean  and 
attacking  people  who  had  never  done  them  any  harm, 
overturning  and  obliterating  a  '  splendid  civilization, '  and 
more  to  the  same  effect.  *  *  *  Yet,  if  we  are  to  be 
guided  by  strict  logic,  it  would  be  difficult  to  condemn  the 
Spaniards  for  the  mere  act  of  conquering  Mexico  without 
involving  in  the  same  condemnation  our  own  forefathers, 
who  crossed  the  ocean  and  overran  the  territory  of  the 
United  States,  with  small  regard  for  the  proprietary  rights 
of  Algonquins  or  Iroquois,  or  red  men  of  any  sort.  Our 
forefathers,  if  called  upon  to  justify  themselves,  would  have 
replied  that  they  were  founding  Christian  States  and  dif- 

*  John  Fiske,   "The  Discovery  of  America,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  456. 
**Ibid,  Vol.  II.,  p.  443. 

—15—  ' 


fusing  the  blessings  of  a  higher  civilization.  Now,  if  we 
would  not  lose  or  distort  the  historical  perspective,  we 
must  bear  in  mind  that  the  Spanish  conquerors  would 
have  returned  exactly  the  same  answer."* 
Redeeming:  It  is  precisely  in  ' '  founding  Christian  states  and  diffus- 
spanish       ing   the   blessings   of  a   higher   civilization "  among   the 

Colonization,  jj^^j^^j^g  ^.j^^^  ^g  f^^d  the  great  redeeming  features  of  Span- 
ish colonization.  As  Seiior  Labra  points  out,  "  the  coloniz- 
ing efforts  of  Las  Casas  in  Central  America,  of  Irala  in 
Paraguay,  and  of  Vasco  Nunez  in  Darien  were  all  inspired 
by  a  profound  sympathy  for  the  Indians,  by  a  marked 
preference  for  peaceful  means,  the  success  of  which  was 
fully  demonstrated,  as  well  as  by  the  purpose  of  harmoniz- 
ing the  existence  of  the  Spaniards  and  the  aborigines, 
causing  the  latter  to  enter  by  degrees  into  the  enjoyment 
of  the  advantages  and  conveniences  of  the  former."** 

Sublime  Work       The  contemplation  of  the  lifelong  and  sublime  work  of 

of  Fatiier 

Las  Casas.  Father  Las  Casas  draws  from  the  historian  and  philosopher, 
John  Fiske,  this  glowing  tribute:  "  In  contemplating  such 
a  life  as  that  of  Las  Casas,  all  words  of  eulogy  seem  weak 
and  frivolous.  The  historian  can  only  bow  in  reverent  awe 
before  a.  figure  which  is  in  some  respects  the  most  beau- 
tiful and  sublime  in  the  annals  of  Christianity  since  the 
apostolic  age.  When  now  and  then,  in  the  course  of  the 
centuries,  God's  providence  brings  such  a  life  into  this 
world,  the  memory  of  it  must  be  cherished  by  mankind  as 
one  of  its  most  precious  and  sacred  possessions.  For  the 
thoughts,  the  words,  the  deeds  of  such  a  man  there  is  no 
death.  The  sphere  of  their  influence  goes  on  widening 
forever.  They  bud,  they  blossom,  they  bear  fruit  from 
age  to  age."*** 

Were  it  my  purpose  to  contrast  here  the  Spanish  policy 
of  early  colonization  with  the  methods  employed  by  Por- 

*  John  Fiske,  "  The  Discovery  of  America,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  291. 
**  Labra,  "  La  Colonizacion  en  la  Historia,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  98. 
***  John  Fiske,  "The  Discovery  of  America,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  482. 

—16  — 


tuguese,  Dutch,  French  and  British  colonizers,  abundant 
material  could  be  found  in  history  to  prove  that  "  Spain 
cannot  be  denied  the  foremost  place  among  colonizing  na- 
tions. "*  While  Spain's  principal  aim  was  to  teach  reli- 
gion and  good  morals  to  the  subjugated  Indians,  raising 
them  to  the  level  of  the  conquerors,  Portugal,  Holland 
and  Great  Britain  for  a  long  time  considered  their  colonies 
only  as  profitable  markets  and  treated  the  natives  as 
slaves.  Senor  Labra,  the  Cuban  Autonomist,  devotes  two 
entire  chapters  of  the  work  above  cited  to  a  comparison 
such  as  has  been  indicated,  demonstrating  with  numerous 
quotations  the  wise  and  humane  spirit  of  the  Laws  of  the 
Indies,  the  compilation  of  which  was  begun  in  1570  by 
Philip  II.  and  concluded  in  1660;  and  this  impartial 
Cuban,  who  is  an  authority  on  the  history  and  exposition 
of  law,  indignantly  refutes  the  opinions  unfavorable  to 
Spanish  colonization  advanced  by  such  historians  as 
Robertson  and  Roscher.** 

Long  after  Spain,  under  Charles  V.,  had  decreed  the 
freedom  of  the  Indians  and  made  them  subjects  of  Spain, 
with  the  same  rights  as  the  Spanish  born,  the  British  in- 
troduced white  slaves  into  America,  who,  as  "indented" 
and  "convict"  servants,  were  sold  at  ^40  or  £,50  per 
head.  The  Dutch  were  the  first  to  introduce  the  African 
slave  trade  into  America  (in  1620) — according  to  Bancroft 
— a  curse  which  the  British  extended  later  on  to  the  West 
Indies. 

And  as  for  financial  oppression,  never  were  the  subjects 
of  Spain  in  the  New  World  so  heavily  and  so  unjustly 
taxed  as  were  the  British  colonists  by  the  Navigation  Acts, 
the  creation  of  the  Oriental  Companies,  the  bill  of  1699 
against  woolens,  and  other  oppressive  measures.  Nay, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  of  the  thirteen  colonies 


Contrast    with 
the  riethods 

of  Other 
Colonizers. 


British  and 

Dutch 

Imported 

White  and 

Colored  Slaves 

into  America. 


Financial 

Oppression  of 

British 

Colonists. 


*  Labra,  "  La  Colonizaci6n  en  la  Historia,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  84. 
**Ibid,  Vol.  II.,  Chap.  13,  p.  83.  and  Chap.  14,  p.  113. 

—  17—     - 


iVloral  and 
riaterial 
Progress  of 
British  and 
Spanish 
Colonists  Con- 
trasted. 


of  North  America,  with  its  list  of  grievances,  stands  an 
everlasting  monument  to  the  grasping,  deaf  and  blind 
cupidity  of  Great  Britain. 

As  regards  progress,  there  is  nothing  on  this  continent 
to  show  that  Great  Britain,  up  to  the  time  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  had  done  anything  to  ameliorate  the  con- 
dition of  the  colonists.  On  the  other  hand,  Mexico  and 
the  other  Spanish- American  republics  can  boast  of  numer- 
ous public  works  left  by  the  Spanish;  beautiful  cities,* 
magnificent  churches  and  cathedrals,  fine  universities, 
colleges  and  hospitals,  several  mints,  various  aqueducts 
and  viaducts,  interesting  museums,  palatial  residences, 
artistic  monuments  and  innumerable  mines,  all  built  and 
equipped  under  Spanish  rule  centuries  before  the  Ameri- 
can colonies  revolted  against  the  tyranny  of  the  British 
Government. 

While  the  policy  of  Great  Britain  toward  the  aboriginal 
tribes  of  North  America  had  been  one  of  spoliation  and 
merciless  extermination,  the  policy  of  Spain,  as  is  clearly 
stated  in  the  ordinance  issued  by  Charles  V.  in  1526, 
consisted  in  "teaching  the  Indians  good  morals,  leading 
them  away  from  vice  and  cannibalism,  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  them  and  instructing  them  in  the  doctrine  of 
our  Catholic  faith  for  the  salvation  of  their  souls,  and 
bringing  them  under  our  sovereignty,  so  that  they  may 
be  treated,  favored  and  protected  the  same  as  all  our  other 
subjects  and  vassals."** 

Thus,  while  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  North  America 
have  well  nigh  disappeared  under  the  aggressive  extension 
of  Anglo-Saxon  occupation,  the  Indians  of  Spanish 
America,  under  * '  the  most  complete  and  comprehensive 
scheme  of  Colonial  Government  which  the  world  has  ever 


*  Baron  von  Humboldt,    speaking  of  the  capital  of  Mexico,    said 
it  was  "  the  city  of  palaces,  and  the  handsomest  capital  in  America." 


"  Recopilacion  de  Indias,"  Book  I.,  title  1,  section  3. 


known,"*    have  subsisted  and   become  civilized:     "They  noraiand 

-1        1          •    •                              1  Material 

have  been  saved  and  educated  to  be  citizens  all,  and  among  Progress  of 

theiA  important  scholars,   great  engineers  and  sometime  Spanish 


presidents  of  a  republic."" 


'**  Colonists  Con- 

trasted. 

'*  The  Spaniard  never  robbed  the  brown  first  Americans 
of  their  homes,  nor  drove  them  on  and  on  before  him ;  on 
the  contrary,  he  protected  and  secured  to  them  by  special 
laws  the  undisturbed  possession  of  their  lands  for  all  time. 
It  is  due  to  the  generous  and  manly  laws  made  by  Spain 
three  hundred  years  ago,  that  our  most  interesting  and 
advanced  Indians,  the  Pueblos,  enjoy  to-day  full  security 
in  their  lands,  while  nearly  all  others  (who  never  came 
fully  under  Spanish  dominion)  have  been  time  after  time 
ousted  from  lands  our  Government  had  solemnly  given  to 
them."*** 

"  In  the  United  States  the  aborigines  are  represented  in 
a  very  small  measure,  and  the  tribes  which  have  not  been 
massacred  live  still  in  a  semi-savage  condition  on  reserva- 
tions, more  or  less  respected.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
Spanish  America  the  bulk  of  the  population  is  composed 
of  Spaniolized  Indians,  who,  while  receiving  the  European 
civilization  and  mixing  with  the  races  from  the  Old  World, 
are  not  the  less  representatives  of  the  original  American 
race."**** 

Herein  lies  the  contrast  between  the  two  systems  of 
colonization :  while  ' '  Neo-Saxons  have  destroyed  or  driven 
out  the  native  population,  Neo-Latins  have  assimilated 
them."*****     The  work  of  assimilation,  regulated  by  wise 

*    S.   T.    Wallis,     "Spain,    Her   Institutions   and    Public    Men," 
p.  70. 

**"  The  Awakening    of  a  Nation,"   by  Chas.  F.  Lummis,  //ar- 
per's  Magazine,  March,  1897. 

***  Chas.  F.  Lummis,  "The  Spanish  Pioneers,"  p.  149. 

****  Rectus,  "Geographie  Universelle,"  Vol.  XVII.,  p.  14. 

*****  Antony  Meray,    "Aptitudes  of  Human  Races,"    Revue  Mo- 
derne,  September,  1857. 

—  19  — 


laws,  began  almost  as  soon  as  the  rulers  of  Spain  were  made 
aware  of  the  vast  discoveries  and  conqiiests  in  the  New 
World.  » 

Wisdom  and         ' '  Although  no  doubt  greatly  defective  in  many  particu- 

Humanity    of     ,  ,       .  ,  .      -.    .    ,^  .  ,        , 

Spanish  Laws  l^rs,  and  tmctured  most  prejudicially  with  the  errors  in 
for  the  Indians.  pQi^j-i^^^i  economy  which  were  peculiar  to  the  times,  the 
Recopilacidn  de  Indias  (Laws  of  the  Indies)  bears  all  about 
it  evidences  of  the  most  far-seeing  wisdom,  the  most  labo- 
rious and  comprehensive  investigation  and  management  of 
details,  and  a  spirit  of  enlightened  humanity  not  easily  to 
be  exceeded."  * 

I  will  close  these  introductory  remarks  showing  the 
spirit  of  Spanish  colonization  with  another  quotation  from 
*'  The  Spanish  Pioneers."  Speaking  of  Pizarro,  Mr.  Lum- 
mis  says:  "  Indeed,  he  was  carrying  out  with  great  suc- 
cess that  general  Spanish  principle  that  the  chief  wealth 
of  a  country  is  not  its  gold  or  its  timber  or  its  lands,  but 
\t%  people.  It  was  everywhere  the  attempt  of  the  Spanish 
pioneers  to  uplift  and  Christianize  and  civilize  the  savage 
inhabitants,  so  as  to  make  them  worthy  citizens  of  the 
new  nation,  instead  of  wiping  them  off  the  face  of  the 
earth  to  make  room  for  the  newcomers,  as  has  been  the 
general  fashion  of  some  European  conquests.  Now  and 
then  there  were  mistakes  and  crimes  by  individuals ;  but 
the  great  principle  of  wisdom  and  humanity  marks  the 
whole  broad  course  of  Spain — a  course  which  challenges 
the  admiration  of  every  manly  man."** 

*  S.  T.  Wallis,  "  Spain,"  p.  70. 

**  Lummis,  "The  Spanish  Pioneers,"  p.  376. 


—  30  — 


11. 


EVOLUTION    OF    THE  MODERN    COLONIAL   POLITY 
OF   SPAIN. 

The  object  of  the  foregoing  brief  retrospective  view  is 
to  show  what  has  been  the  traditional  poHcy  of  Spain 
toward  her  American  colonies  ever  since  the  discovery  of 
the  New  World. 

There  may  have  been  men — Viceroys  and  Governors — 
who  have  abused  the  power  given  them  by  Spain  to  ad- 
minister her  laws  in  what  was  called  the  Indies ;  but  to  the 
Spanish  Monarchs  and  the  men  who  ruled  the  destinies  of 
Spain  the  credit  is  due  of  having  had  lofty  ideals  and  of 
having  been  guided  by  wise  counsel  in  framing  the  laws 
which  were  to  govern  their  subjects  across  the  seas. 

In  this  respect  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  have  had  little 
cause  to  complain,  for  the  Spanish  Government  has  been 
ever  mindful  of  the  interests  of  the  two  islands,  and  has 
gradually — perhaps  slowly  at  times — but  surely,  granted 
nearly  all  the  liberties,  reforms  and  concessions  demanded 
by  their  inhabitants. 

There  are  in  all  countries  refractory  people,  impatient 
grumblers  and  malcontents,  who  systematically  attack 
their  own  Government  for  not  following  the  radical  policy 
which  they  themselves  would  dictate. 

Of  such  men  as  these  George  Washington  has  said: 
"  Against  the  malignity  of  the  discontented,  the  turbulent 
and  vicious,  no  abilities,  no  exertions,  nor  the  most  un- 
shaken integrity  are  a  safeguard." 

Such  has  been  the  case  with  the  Cuban  agitators.  Had 
they  devoted  their  efforts  and  their  energies  to  obtaining 
from  the  mother  country  by  peaceful  and  legal  means  the 
liberties  they  have  sought  through  revolutionary  methods, 

—  21  — 


Traditional 

Policy  of  Spain 

Toward 

American 

Colonies. 


Systematic 

Attacks  of 

Cuban 

rialcontents. 


^^ 


they  would  not  have  hindered  nor  retarded  the  process  of 

evolution,  nor  brought  that  beautiful  and  once  prosperous 

Island  to  the  verge  of  ruin  and  desolation. 

Political  The  introduction  of  liberal  reforms  in  the  Spanish  West 

^Cubrand'"    Indies  has  not  been  as  rapid  as  some  people  with  radical 

Porto  Rico  Has  yicws  might  wish,  but  these  reforms  certainly  have  kept 

Kept  Pace  &  »  J  f 

with  That  of    pace  with  the  political  evolution  of  Spain. 

The  period  of  peace  which  has  enabled  Spain  to  make 
rapid  strides  on  the  road  of  progress  and  attain  a  prosper- 
ity which  is  hardly  known  abroad,  dates  from  the  middle 
of  the  present  century.  Until  then  the  spirit  of  revolt 
and  brigandage  was  rampant  in  the  Peninsula,  due,  in  no 
small  measure,  to  the  guerilla  warfare  which  the  people 
had  to  adopt  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  French  invaders. 
The  country  had  hardly  regained  its  independence,  at  the 
beginning  of  this  century,  when  the  adoption  of  a  more 
liberal  system  of  government,  substituting  the  representa- 
tive form  for  an  absolute  monarchy,  caused  great  strife 
and  internecine  wars. 

During  that  period  of  turmoil,  when  the  institutions  of 
Spain  were  undergoing  such  a  radical  change,  its  Govern- 
ment could  ill  afford  to  implant  in  the  far-away  colonies 
any  political  reforms  which  had  not  yet  been  tried  in  the 
mother  country.  It  was  only  after  peace  had  been  com- 
pletely restored  at  home  that,  one  by  one,  all  the  political 
innovations  and  democratic  institutions  of  modern  times 
were  gradually  adopted  in  Spain,  until  it  stands  to-day, 
as  has  been  acknowledged  even  by  such  a  staunch  repub- 
lican as  Senor  Castelar,  among  the  freest  nations  of  the 
earth. 
First  And  yet,  in  the  midst  of  the  upheaval  which  the  ancient 

Privileges  political  institutions  of  Spain  were  undergoing  in  the  first 
Re  r^esenta-  ^^^^  °^  ^^^^  ccutury,  twice  were  the  newly  adopted  Consti- 
tion  in  the  tutions  of  Spain  and  representation  in  the  Spanish  Cortes 
Extended  to    extended   to   the   colonies;    besides  which  reforms  were 

the  Colonies.  .,  ,  ,  .  -  -  ,.-  ,  , 

granted  to  them  that  were  considered  very  liberal  at  that 

—  22  — 


time,  including  the  creation  of  Boards  of  Aldermen  and 
Provincial  Assemblies. 

Several  liberal  measures  (such  as  the  abolition  of  the 
Royal  monopoly  of  the  manufacture  of  tobacco  in  1817, 
and  the  freedom  of  commercial  intercourse  at  all  ports  of 
Cuba  in  1818)  were  granted  to  the  Island  at  the  solicita- 
tion of  the  eminent  Cuban  patriot,  Francisco  Arango. 
From  that  time  on  several  other  laws  were  passed  tending 
to  improve  the  condition  of  the  colonies,  and  owing  to 
these,  to  the  stream  of  immigration  from  Spain,  and  to  the 
exemption  from  military  service  which  permitted  the  in- 
habitants of  Cuba  to  devote  all  their  energies  to  agricul- 
tural and  industrial  pursuits,  while  a  detachment  of  the 
Spanish  army  garrisoned  the  ports  to  prevent  a  repetition 
of  any  attacks  from  abroad,  soon  the  Island  of  Cuba  began 
to  develop  wondrous  wealth. 

Two  factors  contributed  principally  to  the  enormous 
growth  of  the  production  and  commerce  of  the  Island :  the 
slave  trade,  which  had  been  introduced  in  Cuba  by  the 
English  during  their  occupation  of  Havana  in  1762-63, 
and  the  influx  of  Spanish  merchants  and  agriculturists, 
who  left  the  Spanish  possessions  on  the  continent  when 
the  latter  rebelled  against  Spain  and  went  to  settle  in 
Cuba.  To  the  combined  efforts  of  those  two  elements, 
negro  hands  in  the  fields  and  Spanish  capital,  brains  and 
activity,  the  Island  owed  its  steady  development,  until  its 
revenue  reached  in  1861  a  total  of  $26,423,228  against 
$1,500,000  in  1782,  and  only  $824,612  in  1791,  after  the 
second  war  with  England. 

A  great  part  of  the  land  of  Cuba  belonging  to  the  Crown 
was  parceled  out,  and  free  titles  given  to  a  number  of  set- 
tlers, a  gift  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  monarchical  coun- 
tries. From  1811  to  1814,  and  from  1820  to  1823,  were  two 
periods  of  constitutional  monarchy  in  Spain,  and  the  pro- 
visions of  both  liberal  Constitutions  were  extended  to  Cuba. 

A  dispassionate  historian,  Pezuela,  writing  on  Cuba  in 

—  23  — 


other  Liberal 
Measures 
introduced. 


Free  Titles 

to  Land 

Belonging  to 

the  Crown 

Given  to 

Settlers. 


Special  System 
of  Qovernment 
Enabled  Cuba 

to  Develop 

Resources  and 

Wealth. 


First  Steps 
Toward 

Abolishing 
Slavery. 


1863,  says:  "  In  1836  the  Peninsula  settled  into  a  con- 
stitutional form  of  government,  and  the  reason  why  its 
Constitution  was  not  immediately  applied  to  Cuba  is  to  be 
found  in  the  great  evils  which  former  experiments  brought 
to  the  Island,  as  is  demonstrated  and  evidenced  by  many 
facts.  Since  then  the  Island  has  been  governed  by  a  special 
system  which,  although  not  devoid  of  defects,  which  time 
and  experience,  however,  will  gradually  correct,  has 
enabled  the  Island  to  develop  its  resources  and  wealth  to 
such  a  degree  as  to  admit  of  a  favorable  comparison  with 
the  progress  attained  in  the  same  period  by  countries  which 
claim  more  liberal  forms  of  government."* 

This  opinion  is  confirmed  by  Senor  Labra,  when  he 
says,  comparing  the  methods  of  colonization  of  different 
European  countries  in  the  far  East,  up  to  1868,  "The 
least  violent,  the  least  oppressive,  the  most  imbued  with 
a  progressive  spirit,  were  those  pursued  by  Spain.  "** 

During  the  war  of  secession  in  the  United  States  there 
was  a  period  of  expectancy,  the  abolition  of  slavery  being 
a  problem  in  the  solution  of  which  Cuba  was  particularly 
interested.  No  sooner  had  it  been  settled  and  peace  re- 
stored in  the  United  States  than  the  Spanish  Government 
considered  the  time  ripe  for  introducing  some  reforms  in 
Cuba,  and  with  this  end  in  view  a  consiilting  committee 
composed  of  many  prominent  Cubans  was  called  to  Madrid 
in  1867,  to  confer  with  the  Government  and  present  the 
views  of  the  Cuban  people. 

Unfortunately,  before  a  plan  could  be  agreed  upon  and 
adopted,  Spain  was  convulsed  once  more  by  a  democratic 
revolution,  which  drove  the  Queen  from  the  throne  and 
brought  about  a  series  of  radical  changes  in  the  institutions 
of  the  country.  Almost  simultaneously  with  that  revolu- 
tion, in   1868,  the   uprising  of  the   secessionist  party   in 


*"  Diccionario    Geogrdfico,    Estadlstico,  Histdrico  de    la  Isla  de 
Cuba,"  by  Jacobo  de  la  Pezuela. 

**"La  Colonizacion  en  la  Historia,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  365. 


—  24 


Cuba  took  place,  adding  to  Spain's  local  troubles  a  rebellion 
in  her  distant  colony,  which  lasted  nearly  ten  years. 

It  was  out  of  the  question  to  establish  political  reforms 
in  Cuba  while  the  insurrection  was  going  on ;  but  as  soon 
as  the  Island  was  pacified  a  series  of  liberal  measures  were 
gfradually  granted,  which  more  than  fulfilled  all  the  con- 
ditions set  forth  in  the  articles  of  capitulation  submitted 
by  the  rebels  in  arms  and  accepted  by  Spain  previous  to 
their  surrender  in  1878. 

Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  as  to  Spain  not 
keeping  faith  with  the  insurgents,  it  is  a  positive  fact,  well 
sustained  by  undeniable  evidence  in  the  shape  of  laws 
which  now  govern  the  Island  of  Cuba,  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  Spain  has  granted  much  more  than  the  insur- 
gents demanded  in  their  covenant,  called  the  Treaty  of 
Zanjon. 

In  the  articles  of  capitulation  nothing  was  said  about 
representation  in  the  Cortes,  nor  about  the  total  abolition 
of  slavery,  nor  about  extending  to  Cuba  the  Constitu- 
tion of  Spain;  and  yet  all  these  concessions  have  been 
granted. 

According  to  the  articles  of  capitulation  the  insurgents 
were  satisfied  to  have  for  Cuba  the  same  politic,  organic 
and  administrative  laws  then  in  force  in  Porto  Rico ;  and 
a  comparison  of  the  laws  now  governing  Cuba  with  those 
governing  Porto  Rico  at  that  time  will  clearly  demonstrate 
that  the  Cubans  have  received  more  than  the  insurgents 
asked  for. 

The  articles  of  capitulation  demanded  free  pardon  and 
amnesty  to  all  rebels  and  deserters,  and  freedom  for  the 
coolies  and  the  slaves  who  were  in  the  insurgent  ranks. 
Spain  granted  amnesty  and  free  pardon  to  all  offenders, 
and  by  a  very  wise  law,  framed  by  Seiior  Moret,  provided 
for  the  total  abolition  of  slavery  in  a  gradual  way,  so  as 
not  to  conflict  by  a  too  sudden  change  with  existing  condi- 
tions.    Thus  slavery  has  been  totally  abolished  in  Cuba 

—  35  — 


First  Insurrec- 
tion in  Cuba 
Retarded    Lib- 
eral  Progress. 


Spain 

Conceded  to 

Rebels    More 

Than  They 

Aslced  by 

Treaty    of 

Zanjon. 


without  bloodshed  and  without  injury  to  the  interests  of 

planters  or  to  agriculture. 

Several  other  measures  extending  to  Cubans  the  same 

rights    and  liberties  that  Spaniards  enjoy  in  Spain   have 

been  adopted  by  the  Cortes  and  the  Government. 
•  New  In  1881  the  Liberal  Constitution  of  Spain  of  1876  was 

"Vpain**""    proclaimed  in  Cuba.     From  that  date  the  inhabitants  of 

Proclaimed  in    Qui^a  have  cnjoycd  all  the  civil  and  political   risrhts   of 
Cuba  in  1881.  ^    -^  r  & 

Spanish  subjects. 

Under  the  Constitution  no  inhabitant  of  Cuba  may  be 
arrested  except  in  the  cases  and  in  the  manner  prescribed 
by  law.  Within  twenty-four  hours  of  the  arrest  the  pris- 
oner must  be  discharged  or  surrendered  to  the  judicial 
authorities;  thereupon  a  judge  having  jurisdiction  must, 
within  seventy-two  hours,  either  order  the  discharge  of  the 
prisoner  or  order  his  commitment  to  jail.  Within  the 
same  limit  of  time  the  prisoner  must  be  informed  of  the 
decision  in  his  case.     (Art.  IV.  of  the  Constitution.) 

No  Spaniard,  and  consequently  no  Cuban,  may  be  com- 
mitted except  upon  the  warrant  of  a  judge  having  juris- 
diction. Within  seventy-two  hours  of  the  commitment 
the  prisoner  must  be  granted  a  hearing  and  the  warrant 
of  commitment  either  sustained  or  quashed.      (Art.  V.) 

Any  person  arrested  or  committed  without  the  formali- 
ties required  by  law,  unless  his  case  fall  within  the  excep- 
tions maSe  by  the  Constitution  and  by  the  laws,  shall  be 
discharged  upon  his  own  petition,  or  upon  the  petition  of 
any  Spanish  subject.     (Art.  V.) 

No  one  shall  enter  the  dwelling  of  a  Cuban  without  his 
consent  except  in  the  cases  and  in  the  manner  prescribed 
bylaw.     (Art.  VI.) 

His  mail  while  in  charge  of  the  Post  Office  shall  neither 
be  opened  nor  withheld.     (Art.  VII.) 

He  shall  not  be  compelled  to  change  his  dwelling  or 
residence  except  upon  the  order  of  an  authority  competent 
thereto  and  in  the  cases  provided  by  law.     (Art.  IX.) 

—  26  — 


The  penalty  of  confiscation  of  property  shall  neyer  be  constitutional 

^  ■'  .  .  Rights  and 

imposed  upon  him ;  nor  may  he  be  depriyed  of  his  priyate  Guarantees. 
property  unless  by  due  process  of  law,  and,  when  the 
expropriation  be  for  public  use,  after  a  preyious  just  com- 
pensation. If  there  be  no  preyious  just  compensation  the 
courts  shall  protect  his  rights,  and  in  the  proper  case 
restore  him  to  the  possession  of  his  property.     (Art.  X.) 

The  Roman  Catholic  and  Apostolic  religion  is  the 
religion  of  the  State.  But  no  Cuban  shall  suffer  molesta- 
tion on  account  of  his  religious  opinions,  nor  be  disturbed 
in  the  practice  of  his  faith,  provided  he  duly  respect  Chris- 
tian morals.     (Art.  XL) 

The  learned  professions  are  open  to  all  Spanish  subjects 
and  they  may  obtain  their  professional  instruction  in  any 
manner  they  deem  fit.  Any  Spanish  subject  may  estab- 
lish and  conduct  a  school,  in  accordance  with  the  laws. 
(Art.  XII.) 

Eyery  Cuban,  like  eyery  Spaniard,  has  the  right  : 

Freely  to  express  his  ideas  and  opinions,  orally  or  in 
writing,  using  the  printing  press  or  any  similar  device, 
without  censorship. 

Peaceably  to  assemble. 

To  form  associations. 

To  petition,  by  himself  or  in  combination  with  others, 
the  King,  the  Cortes  and  the  authorities. 

The  right  to  petition  is  denied  only  to  armed  forces. 
(Art.  XIII.) 

All  Cubans  are  eligible  to  public  office,  according  to  their 
merit  and  capacity.     (Art.  XV.) 

The  constitutional  rights  conceded  to  Cubans  are  guaran- 
teed by  the  provisions  of  laws  passed  to  enforce  the  Con- 
stitution. These  laws  provide  remedies,  civil  and  criminal, 
for  the  infringement  of  constitutional  rights  by  judges, 
authorities  and  functionaries  of  all  classes.     (Art.  XVI.) 

All  these  constitutional  rights  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Cuba,  which  render  their  citizenship  as  valuable  a  protec- 

—  27  — 


Representa-    t;ion  as  the  citizenshio  of  any  other  state,  no  matter  how 

tion  of  Cuba 

and  Porto  Rico  democratic,  were  secux'ed  by  the  organization  of  munici- 
cortes,        palities  and  provincial  assemblies,  and  above  all  by  repre- 
sentation in  the  Cortes,  as  provided  by  the  two  following- 
articles  of  the  Constitution : 

Art.  89.  The  colonial  provinces  shall  be  governed  by 
special  laws ;  but  the  Government  is  authorized  to  extend  to 
these  provinces  the  laws  proclaimed  or  that  may  be  pro- 
claimed for  the  Peninsula,  with  the  modifications  it  may 
deem  proper,  informing  the  Cortes  thereof. 

Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  shall  be  represented  in  the  Cortes  of 
the  Kingdom  in  the  manner  that  shall  be  prescribed  by  a 
special  law,  and  this  law  may  differ  for  each  of  the  islands. 

Provisional  Article.  The  Government  shall  determine 
when  and  in  what  manner  the  representatives  of  the  Island 
of  Cuba  to  the  Cortes  shall  be  elected. 

Cubans  have  therefore  the  following  constitutional  rights 
firmly  established  by  the  organic  law :  Personal  security 
against  arbitrary  arrest;  inviolability  of  the  domicile; 
security  of  the  secrecy  of  correspondence;  security  against 
confiscation  of  property;  the  suffrage;  freedom  of  wor- 
ship; freedom  of  education,  and  freedom  of  the  study  and 
practice  of  professions ;  freedom  of  speech ;  freedom  of  the 
press ;  right  of  peaceable  assembly ;  right  to  form  associa- 
tions; right  to  petition;  eligibility  to  all  public  oihces, 
and  a  muncipal  and  provincial  government. 

Is  it  therefore  reasonable  to  speak  of  the  "  despotism  of 
the  mother  country,"  or  of  the  "irritating  condition  of  the 
Island  of  Cuba"  ?* 

To  the  oft-repeated  assertion  that  the  Cubans  are  taxed 
without  having  representation  in  the  Cortes,  the  only  reply 
that  need  be  made  is  that  ever  since  1878  Cuba  has  had 
representation  in  the  Spanish  Cortes ;  that  her  representa- 
tives have  a  voice,  not  only  as  regards  the  affairs  of  Cuba, 
but  also  in  the  shaping  of  all  national  affairs,  a  privilege 
never  enjoyed  by  any  colonist  of  Great  Britain;  that  in 
1892  a  new  electoral  law  was  passed  extending  the  right 

*  "Spanish  Rule  in  Cuba:  Laws  Governing  the  Island,"  p.  20. 

—  28  — 


of  suffrage  to  all  persons  paying  taxes  to  the  amount  of  $5 
or  having  a  professional  diploma  or  academic  degree; 
that  Cuba,  with  a  population  of  1,600,000,  sends  thirteen 
Senators  and  thirty  Representatives  to  the  Spanish  Cortes, 
while  the  State  of  New  York,  with  0,513,000  inhabitants, 
sends  only  two  Senators  and  thirty- four  Representatives 
to  Congress.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Cubans  are  well 
represented  in  the  lawmaking  bodies  of  the  Spanish 
Government. 

But  liberal  as  were  these  concessions,  the  statesmen  of    New  Reforms 

Framed  by 

Spain  were  intent  upon  enlarging  their  scope  by  introduc-  Maura  in  1893 
ing  new  reforms   in    accordance   with    the    spirit   of   the     Abarzuzain 
times.     No  later  than  1893  Seiior  Maura,  then  Minister         '^^s- 
for  the  Colonies,  framed  a  Reform  Law  which  was  much 
discussed   in   the   Cortes,    and   which   would  have  estab- 
lished in  Cuba  a  new  regime  little  short    of    autonomy. 
A    change    of   ministry   prevented   that    act   from    being 
passed,    but  subsequently    Seiior   Abarzuza,   a   Cuban  by 
birth,  being  appointed  Minister  for  the  Colonies,  presented 
,  the  same  bill  with  a  few  slight  modifications,  and  it  was 
unanimously  passed  by  both  branches  of  the  Cortes,  the 
men  of  all  parties  joining  in  approval  of  a  law  which  would 
have  greatly  benefited  the  inhabitants  of  Cuba. 

But  the  Cuban  agitators  in  the  United  States  prevented  Cuban   Seces- 

sionists  Revolt 

its  promulgation  in  the  Island  by  inducing  a  few  secession-  to  Prevent 
ists  there  to  join  them  in  a  revolt,  which  soon  increased  in  promulgated. 
magnitude,  owing  to  the  great  number  of  negro  laborers 
who  were  idle  on  account  of  a  monetary  crisis  due  to 
the  low  price  of  sugar.  It  has  always  been  the  purpose 
of  Cuban  secessionists  to  prevent  any  liberal  measure 
being  adopted  in  Cuba,  as  removing  any  just  cause  of  com- 
plaint on  which  to  base  their  rebellious  attitude. 

Though  retarded  by  the  insurrection  which  broke  out  in 
February,  1895,  ten  days  after  its  passage,  said  Reform 
Law,  with  additional  concessions  which  will  amount  prac- 
tically to  home  rule,  is  about  to  be  put  in  force  in  Cuba. 

—  39—, 


Promises 

Made  by  the 

Crown  and 

Qovernment 

Faithfully 
Carried  Out. 


Liberal 
Concessions  of 

1895 

Considerably 

Broadened 

by 

Senor  Canovas 

in  1897. 


Cuban 

Agitators 

Responsible 

for  Calamities. 


Thus  the  promises  of  autonomic  administration  solemnly- 
made  by  the  Queen  Regent  in  her  last  message  to  the 
Cortes,  and  subsequently  confirmed  on  July  14  by  the  Prime 
Minister,  Senor  Canovas,  in  a  memorable  speech,  when  he 
declared  that  "  the  sincerity  both  of  Her  Majesty  and  the 
Government  in  promising  more  ample  and  liberal  reforms 
for  Cuba  was  unquestionable,"  will  have  been  faithfully 
carried  out. 

The  liberal  concessions  embodied  in  the  Abarzuza  law  of 
1895  have  been  considerably  broadened  and  enlarged  by 
the  Royal  Decree  of  February  3,  1897,  in  the  framing  of 
which  Senor  Canovas,  the  leader  of  the  Conservative 
party,  has  shown  a  progressive  spirit  that  has  brought  him 
unstinted  praise,  even  from  the  leaders  of  the  opposition. 
It  is  fair  to  assume  that  Cuba,  having  fared  so  well  at  the 
hands  of  the  Conservative  Government,  has  nothing  to  fear 
from  the  advent  of  the  Liberals  to  power. 

And  we  must  come  to  the  conclusion  that  those  Cubans 
love  their  country  best  who,  by  dint  of  unceasing,  albeit 
peaceful,  efforts  in  the  political  field,  of  patient  though 
persevering  work  in  favor  of  autonomic  ideals,  have,  stone 
by  stone,  paved  the  way  for  progressive  home  rule.  To 
the  blindness  and  folly  of  a  few  who  have  resorted  to  revo- 
lutionary methods  and  plunged  the  country  into  war  the 
Island  owes  nothing  but  ruin,  devastation  and  misery ;  the 
loss  of  prosperity  and  credit ;  the  heavy  burden  of  a  war 
debt.  And  yet  the  Cuban  agitators,  who  are  responsible 
for  all  these  calamities,  and  who  have  done  more  harm  to 
Cuba  in  a  few  years  than  all  the  denounced  misrule  of 
Spain  in  centuries,  accuse  the  Spanish  Government  of  bur- 
dening Cuba  with  a  heavy  debt.  The  blame  should  be 
laid  where  it  belongs.  Cuba  had  no  debt  before  the  first 
rebellion  broke  out.  "Porto  Rico  has  never  risen  in 
revolt.     It  has  no  debt."* 


♦"Spanish  Rule  in  Cuba:  Laws  Governing  the  Island,"  p.  41. 
—  30  — 


VVI7BT.::t 


o 


oar 


^t'.!r'?i.^p-j(\V 


THE  LATEST  flEASURE  OF  HOME  RULE  GRANTED 
TO  CUBA  AND  PORTO  RICO  COHPARED  WITH 
THE  POLITICAL  SYSTEfl  IN  OTHER  FOREIGN 
COLONIES. 

Unlike  British       By  the  new  reform  measure  framed  by  Seiior  Canovas, 

Colonists, 

Cubans  and  Cuba  will  enjoy  a  more  liberal  and  advanced  system  of 

Have  a  Repre-  government  than  any  other  colony,  except  possibly  a  few 

sentative  British  posscssions  favored  with  responsible  government ; 

Supreme  yet  in  the  latter  natives  are  debarred  from  representation 

Qovernment. 

in  the  home  Parliament,  and  from  holding  office  in  the 
home  Government,  while  "  the  natives  of  Cuba  and  Porto 
Rico  have  free  access  to  all  official  careers.  They  hold 
office,  on  equal  terms  with  the  natives  of  the  Peninsula, 
in  the  civil  administration,  the  judiciary,  the  army,  the 
navy  and  the  church.  They  have  their  share,  without 
restriction,  in  the  national  life  in  all  its  aspects.  Cubans 
and  Porto  Ricans,  as  representatives  of  their  provinces  in 
the  Senate  and  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  take  part  in 
the  legislation  for  the  whole  Spanish  nation.  "* 

This  political  privilege  Great  Britain  has  invariably  de- 
nied to  all  her  colonies.  While  the  Latin  countries,  not- 
ably Spain,  France  and  Portugal,  have  adopted  a  policy  of 
assimilation,  forming  with  their  dependencies  "a  sort  of 
confederation,  whereby  the  colony  has  a  representative 
voice  in  the  supreme  government,  "**  ' '  the  inhabitants 
of  the  United  Kingdom  have  always  been  decidedly  hostile 
to  the  admission  of  colonial  representatives  into  the  Houses 
of  Parliament."***     In  this  respect  "the  Isle  of  Man  and 

♦"Spanish  Rule  in  Cuba:  Laws  Governing  the  Island,"  pp.  41,  46. 
**  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  Vol.  XL,  p.  30. 
***  La  Grande  Encyclopaedic. 

—  32  — 


the    Channel   Islands   are   as   completely  separated   from 
England  as  New  Zealand  and  Canada."* 

This  is  a  characteristic  trait  of  polity  which  must  not  be    Difference  in 

Metliods  of 

lost  sight  of  in  drawing  a  comparison  between  the  respect-     colonization 
ive  regimes  in  British  and  Spanish  possessions.     In  fact     "character." 
no  comparison  should  be  drawn  without  first  taking  into         '**'"• 
consideration  the  different — nay,  opposite — traits  of  char- 
acter of  the  Latin  and  Anglo-Saxon  races,  to  which  must 
principally  be  ascribed  the  difference  in  their  methods  of 
colonization. 

Taking  them  at  their  origin  we  find  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  Spain  bore  the  expense  of  the  discovery  and  con- 
quest, sent  fleets  and  men  across  the  seas,  directing  the 
efforts  of  pioneers,  framed  laws  to  regulate  trade,  adopted 
a  system  of  colonization  by  creating  municipalities,  estab- 
lishing parishes,  endowing  schools  and  hospitals,  and  took 
a  deep  interest  in  the  growth  and  development  of  her  new 
colonies,  which  was  closely  watched  and  directed  from 
home. 

England,  on  the  other  hand,  took  no  particular  pains  to  England  Took 

No  Concern 

encourage  or  uphold  the  efforts  of  British  discoverers  and     in  the  Birth 

1        •  T^        1  •   1  1        A     1  •       ^'"'  Growth  of 

colonizers.  ' '  Englishmen  were  mustering  on  the  Atlantic  Her  colonies. 
coast  of  North  America,  organizing  natural  and  simple 
Governments,  and  preparing  for  their  march  of  3,000  miles 
westward,  and  yet  the  Government  and  people  of  England 
were  utterly  ignorant  that  any  such  process  was  going  on 
at  all.  "**  English  colonists  acted  with  entire  independence 
of  the  mother  country,  for  England,  as  well  as  Holland, 
simply  protected  individual  enterprises  by  means  of  char- 
ters. Lechevalier,  in  his  monumental  work  on  colonial 
affairs,  says :  ' '  While  it  is  a  fact  that  after  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  particularly  after  the  end  of  the  last  century, 
England  has  seen  her  domain  extend  over  all  parts  of  the 

*  Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 
**  Ibid,  Vol.  XXIII.,  p.  731. 

—  33  — 


The  Spanish 
Paternal 
riethod  in 
Colonial 

Qovernment. 


The  American 

Revolution 

Caused    by 

Unbearable 

Burdens. 


world,  she  had  not  yet  a  well-defined  colonial  polity.  It 
is  only  the  individual  initiative  of  her  subjects  which 
has  pushed  her  toward  distant  settlements ;  the  instinct  of 
her  own  good  fortune  has  done  the  rest.  The  following 
line  from  Ovid  can  now  be  applied  to  her: 

"  Et  quod  nunc  ratio  est,  impetus  ante  fuit."* 

Thus  in  the  Spanish  paternal  method  of  keeping  the 
colonies  closely  bound  to  the  metropolis  we  find  reflected 
the  racial  characteristic  of  close  family  ties,  whereas  the 
individual  love  of  independence,  which  is  a  salient  trait  of 
Anglo-Saxon  peoples,  has  shaped  after  a  different  pattern 
the  formation,  growth  and  development  of  English-speak- 
ing colonies. 

It  might  truly  be  said  that  the  latter  were  born  free  and 
independent,  as  far  as  the  administration  of  local  affairs 
was  concerned,  since  the  allegiance  they  owed  to  England 
was  spontaneously  offered  by  the  patriotic  zeal  of  English 
settlers  without  any  effort  or  diligence  on  the  part  of  the 
home  Government.  The  only  care  of  the  metropolis  was 
to  secure,  regulate  and  increase  her  commerce  and  trade 
with  her  colonies,  and  all  the  bills  and  acts  passed  by  Par- 
liament which  had  any  bearing  on  the  colonies  had  this 
sole  end  in  view.  As  for  their  interior  organization  and 
administration,  the  home  Government  never  gave  them  a 
thought. 

But  the  burdens  imposed  upon  the  colonies  by  the  parent 
government  became  so  unbearable  that  thirteen  colonies  in 
North  America  revolted  and  threw  off  the  yoke,  and  in 
others  the  murmurs  were  so  loud  that  it  became  imperative 
to  apply  a  remedy. 

' '  Complaints  of  misgovernment  were  frequent  and  the 
necessity  for  some  reform  in  colonial  administration  was 
obvious  and  unquestionable,  though  the  sagacity  of  British 


*  "  Rapport  sur  les  Questions  Coloniales,"  by  Jules  Lechevalier, 
p.  10. 


—  34  — 


statesmen  was  severely  tried  to  find  an  adequate   solution 
to  this  perplexing  and  difficult  problem."* 

When    Canada    assumed    a    threatening   attitude,    Sir    Threatening 

Attitude  of 

Robert  Peel,  in  an  eloquent  speech  (January  16,  1838),  Canada 
said:  "  It  has  been  alleged  that  the  majority  of  the  people  "  '  3  • 
of  Canada  are  disaffected  to  the  British  Government,  and 
that,  therefore,  they  ought  to  be  released  from  their 
allegiance.  Is  this  great  country  prepared  to  say,  on  the 
first  manifestation  of  any  rebellious  feeling,  '  Separate 
from  us  and  establish  a  government  for  yourselves,'  in- 
stead of  recalling  them  to  their  duty?  I  think  not.  The 
application  of  this  principle  is  perfectly  inadmissible.  If 
it  applies  to  distant  possessions,  it  applies  also  to  those 
which  are  nearest  to  this  country,  and  even  to  integral 
parts  of  the  empire." 

It  was  only  after  the  insurrection  of  1839   in   Canada,    introduction  of 

Responsible 

which,  by  the  way,  "was  put  down  in  a  terrible,  a  most  Government  in 
terrible  manner,"**  that  the  British  Government,  under  inT8*4i" 
Lord  Melbourne,  saw  the  necessity  of  modifying  its 
colonial  policy  at  once,  which  it  did  by  introducing  a  form 
of  responsible  government  into  Canada  in  1841 ;  but  for 
several  years  ' '  the  system  Itself  was  imperfectly  under- 
stood and  mistakes  were  made  on  all  sides  in  the  applica- 
tion of  this  hitherto  untried  experiment  in  colonial  govern- 
ment to  the  practical  administration  of  local  affairs."*** 

After  the  lapse  of  seven  years,  when  the  new  regime 
had  been  thoroughly  and  successfully  tried  in  Canada,  it 
was  introduced  (1848)  into  the  maritime  provinces,  and 
subsequently  it  was  gradually  extended,  from  1855  to 
1890,  to  the  several  Australian  colonies  and  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.     The  confederation  of  the  Canadian  provinces 


*  ' '  Parliamentary  Government  in  the  British  Colonies, "  by  Alpheus 
Todd,  p.  26. 

**  Labra,  "La  Colonizaci6n  en  la  Historia,"  Vol.    11.,  p.  364. 

***Grey,  "  History  of  Colonial  Policy,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  205. 

—  35  — 


The  Colonial 
Policy  of  Great 

Britain 
Shaping   Itself 

Only  of  Late. 


Responsible 
Government 

Introduced 
Only  Where 
Anglo-Saxon 

Population 
Predominates. 


was  effected  by  the  establishment  of  a  Dominion  under 
the  provisions  of  the  British  North  America  Act  of  1867. 

It  is  only  of  late  years,  therefore,  that  the  colonial  policy 
of  Great  Britain  has  shaped  itself  into  a  well-defined  system, 
and  according  to  their  government  relations  with  the 
Crown  the  colonies  are  arranged  under  three  heads: 

(1)  Crown  colonies,  in  which  the  Crown  has  the  entire 
control  of  legislation,  while  the  administration  is  carried 
out  by  public  officers  under  the  control  of  the  home  Gov- 
ernment. (3)  Colonies  possessing  representative  institu- 
tions and  irresponsible  government,  in  which  the  Crown 
has  only  a  veto  on  legislation,  but  the  home  Government 
retains  the  control  of  public  officers.  (3)  Colonies  pos- 
sessing representative  institutions  and  responsible  govern- 
ment, in  which  the  Crown  has  only  a  veto  on  legislation 
and  the  home  Government  has  no  control  over  any  officer 
except  the  Governor. 

The  form  of  responsible  government  has  only  been  in- 
troduced into  the  most  important  possessions  of  Great 
Britain,  where  the  Anglo-Saxon  population  is  in  the  ma- 
jority, and  it  was  "avowedly  introduced  into  the  colonies 
for  the  purpose  of  reproducing  in  them  a  system  of  local 
self-government  akin  to  that  which  prevails  in  the  mother 
country,  and  to  relieve  the  colonies  from  imperial  inter- 
ference in  their  domestic  or  internal  concerns.  The  advo- 
cates of  colonial  reform  had  long  striven  to  obtain  such  a 
modification  in  the  methods  of  colonial  administration  as 
would  confer  upon  British  subjects  in  the  colonies  similar 
rights  of  self-government  to  those  enjoyed  by  their 
fellow-citizens  at  home.  This  boon  it  was  the  expressed 
desire  of  the  Imperial  Government  to  bestow,  so  far  at 
least  as  was  compatible  with  the  allegiance  due  to  the 
Crown, 

' '  The  new  polity  granted  to  the  colonies  was  not  in- 
tended, however,  to  effect  a  fundamental  change  in  the 
principles  of  government,  by  substituting  democratic  for 

—  86  — 


monarchical  rule.  It  was  designed  to  extend  to  distant 
parts  of  the  empire  the  practical  benefits  of  a  parliamentary- 
system  similar  to  that  which  exists  in  the  parent  state,  and 
thus  to  render  political  institutions  in  the  colonies,  as  far 
as  possible,  '  the  very  image  and  transcript  of  those  of 
Great  Britain.'  "* 

With  the  exception  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,   "the  Right  to  inter- 

_  fere  Retained 

mother  country,  however,  still  retains  the  right  to  inter-     by  England. 
fere — either  by  advice,  remonstrance,  or,  if  need  be,  by 
active  measures  of  control — whenever  the  powers  of  self- 
government  are  attempted  to  be  exercised   by  any  colony 
in    an    unlawful,    unconstitutional    or    oppressive    man- 


ner. 


** 


' '  The  whole  question  of  the  relations  of  the  imperial 
authority  to  the  representative  colonies  is  one  of  great 
difficulty  and  delicacy.  It  requires  consummate  prudence 
and  statesmanship  to  reconcile  the  metropolitan  supremacy 
with  the  worthy  spirit  of  colonial  independence.  As  a 
matter  of  abstract  right  the  mother  country  has  never 
parted  with  the  claim  of  ultimate,  supreme  authority  for 
the  imperial  legislature.  If  it  did  so,  it  would  dissolve 
the  imperial  tie  and  convert  the  colonies  into  foreign  and 
independent  states."*** 

In  the  Dominion  of  Canada  the  Governor  General,  ap-      Provincial 

.  ,         „  .  T         .  ,      Legislation    In 

pomted  by  and  representing  the  Crown,  is  vested  with        British 
absolute  responsibility  as  to  the  power  of  interfering  with    w""to  crown' 
provincial  legislation ;  but,  nevertheless,  ' '  the  acts  of  sub-       Control. 
ordinate  legislatures  throughout  the  empire  must  be  liable 
to  the  constitutional  supervision  and  control  of  the  Crown 
in  the  last  resort.     This  is  necessary,  not  only  for  the  pur- 
pose of  maintaining  the  ultimate  authority  of  the  supreme 


*  Alpheus  Todd,  "  Parliamentary  Government  in  the  British  Colo- 
nies," p.  625. 

**  Ibid,  p.  29. 

***  "  Historicus "    (Sir  W.  Vernon    Harcourt),    London     Times, 
June  1,  1879. 

—  37  — 


power,  but  likewise  for  the  purpose  of  insuring  that  no 
colonial  or  provincial  legislation  shall  be  exercised 
unlawfully,   or  to   the   prejudice   of  other  parts  of    the 


'* 


empire. 
Responsible         It  is  a  noticeable  fact,  and  one  that  especially  invites 

Government  a  i         •  r 

Failure  in  attention  in  connection  with  the  introduction  of  a  new 
^''tadler^'**  regime  in  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  that  the  form  of  '  respon- 
sible government '  has  not  worked  equally  well  in  differ- 
ent colonies  of  Great  Britain.  In  the  British  West  Indies, 
which  have  many  geographical,  topographical,  climatic  and 
ethnographic  points  of  similarity  with  the  Spanish  West 
Indies,  "the  attempt  to  establish  local  self-government 
has  proved  to  be  a  failure.  After  a  fruitless  endeavor  to 
work  the  system  successfully  it  was  abandoned,  and  a 
simpler  and  more  effective  method  of  administration 
resorted  to.  This  was  notably  the  case  in  regard  to 
Jamaica,  which  for  nearly  two  centuries  had  possessed  a 
representative  Constitution,  and  had  been  latterly  intrusted 
with  a  responsible  government.  In  1866  the  local  Legisla- 
ture, at  the  instance  of  Governor  Eyre,  unanimously  agreed 
to  abrogate  all  the  existing  machinery  of  legislation  and  to 
accept  in  lieu  thereof  any  form  of  government  that  might 
be  approved  by  the  Crown.  Accordingly,  by  an  Imperial 
Act  passed  in  the  same  year,  a  new  Constitution  was  con- 
ferred upon  the  island,  and  subsequently  declared,  by 
order  in  Council  of  May  19,  1884,  to  consist  of  a  legislative 
council  composed  of  four  ex-officio  members,  five  members 
appointed  by  the  Crown  and  nine  elective  members. 
Besides  this  chamber  there  is  a  privy  council  of  eight 
members  appointed  by  the  Crown,  together  with  the 
Colonial  Secretary  and  the  Attorney  General.  "** 

The  example  of  Jamaica    was    afterward  followed  by 
other  colonies  in  the  West  Indies.     British  Honduras  also 

*Alpheus    Todd,    "  Parliamentary  Government   in     the     British 
Colonies,"  p.  30. 
*»  "  Colonial  Year  Book,"  1891,  p.  351. 


In    1869  surrendered  its  representative   government   and 
became  a  Crown  colony. 

The  inference  to  be  drawn  from  these  events  is  that  it     Progressive 

Measures     for 

is  unwise  to  introduce  a  system  of  absolute  self-govern-       Political 

Advancement 

ment  into  those  colonies  which  are  not  entirely  prepared    should  Pre- 
to  exercise  it  judiciously.     It  is  incumbent  upon  trained  '^lelf-oovern-* 
statesmen  to  bring  about  a  modification  of  existing  con-         ment. 
ditions  in  a  gradual  and  cautious  way,  by  means  of  pro- 
gressive measures,   which  may  guide  a  people,   step  by 
step,  into  new  and  untrodden  avenues  of  political  advance- 
ment. 

This  Spanish  statesmen  have  endeavored  to  do  as  re- 
gards Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  where  "  slavery  has  been 
abolished  almost  as  early  as  it  was  in  this  country,  this 
great  revolution  being  accomplished  after  no  terrible  shed- 
ding of  human  blood,  after  no  long  and  bitter  warfare,  but 
peacefully,  quietly,  effectively,"*  by  means  of  a  wise 
law ;  and  in  the  same  progressive  spirit  ' '  Cubans  have 
been  granted  the  same  rights  as  other  Spaniards;  they 
are  represented  in  the  Spanish  Cortes ;  their  provincial  and 
municipal  administration  is  surrounded  by  guarantees ;  the 
civil  and  criminal  laws  of  Spain,  administered  by  tribunals 
similar  to  those  of  the  Peninsula,  have  been  established  in 
Cuba ;  public  instruction  has  been  organized  upon  the  same 
basis  as  in  Spain ;  the  economic  legislation  for  Cuba  has 
been  regulated  to  facilitate  the  prosperity  and  wealth  of 
that  magnificent  portion  of  America;"**  in  a  word,  to 
quote  a  phrase  before  cited,  the  institutions  in  Cuba  have 
been  rendered,  as  far  as  possible,  "  the  very  image  and 
•transcript"  of  those  of  Spain. 

This  has  been  frankly  acknowledged  by  the  Autonomist    Acknowledg- 
ment of  Cuban 
party  in  Cuba  in  their  manifesto,  and  one  of  the  eminent    Autonomists 

leaders  of  that  party,  Seilor  Rafael  Montoro,  in  an  inter-    Enjoyment  of 

Social  and 

*  United  States  Financial  and  Mercantile  Examiner,  February  Political 

6.  1897.  '^'«''*'- 

**  "Spanish  Rule  in  Cuba:  Laws  Governing  the  Island,"   p.  10. 

—  39   - 


view  with  an  American  journalist  in  1895,  declared  that 
"  to-day  all  classes  in  Cuba  enjoy  the  fullest  measure  of 
social  and  political  rights." 

And  yet  this  sweeping  statement  was  made  long  before 

Spain's  Prime  Minister,  Senor  Canovas,  had  drafted  the 

bases  of  a  much  more  liberal  regime  for  Cuba. 

New  Reforms        By  the  new  reforms  Spain  will  establish  in   her  West 

^nAdt^ncld**  Ii^^ian  posscssions  a  political  autonomy  adapted    to    the 

System  of      existing  conditions  in  those  islands,  which  will  be  greatly 

Political  ^  '  b  J 

Autonomy,  in  advance  of  the  various  systems  adopted  by  other 
European  nations  for  the  government  of  their  respective 
colonies.  In  none  of  the  possessions  of  France,  Portugal 
or  Holland  is  there  any  form  of  local  administration  that 
can  compare  with  the  autonomic  measure  which  the 
Government  of  Spain  has  devised  for  Cuba  and  Porto 
Rico. 

The  Colonial  In  his  review  of  Dutch  colonization,  the  Cuban  his- 
Hoiiand"  torian,  Senor  Labra  remarks  that  Holland  until  very  re- 
cently has  regarded  her  colonies  as  large  farms  and 
plantations,  establishing  in  them  a  system  of  oppressive 
exploitation  which  included  the  bondage  of  the  Indians, 
the  prohibition  from  holding  lands,  military  dictatorship, 
native  despotism,  the  division  of  race  and  caste,  and  mer- 
cantile intolerance.*  Her  colonial  system,  even  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  has  been  tyrannical,  and  tending 
chiefly  to  make  profit  out  of  the  cultivation  of  lands  in 
Java  by  means  of  obligatory  cultivation,  a  system  in- 
vented by  General  Van  den  Bosch  with  the  aid  of  a  trad- 
ing company.  It  was  only  in  1890  that  lands,  labor  and 
commerce  became  free  to  all.  Before  that  time  the 
natives  frequently  committed  suicide  or  emigrated  to 
escape  the  horrors  of  Dutch  oppression.  "  Holland  looks 
upon  her  colonists  as  subjects  who  cannot  enjoy  the  same 
rights  as   the  mother  country,  much  less  govern  them- 

*  R.    M.    Labra,    "La  Colonizacion  en    la    Historia,"    Vol.    IL, 
p.  366. 

—  40  — 


selves.  Following  this  doctrine  her  colonies  are  placed 
beyond  the  Constitution  of  the  Realm,  they  are  not  repre- 
sented in  Parliament,  and  they  are  controlled  by  the 
supreme  authority  of  the  home  Government."* 

Portugal,  like  Spain  and  France,  has  adopted  the  policy    The  Colonial 
of  assimilation,  giving  to  her  colonial  subjects  representa-      ^ortu^a"* 
tion  in  the  Parliament  at  Lisbon  and  the  same  civil  and 
political  rights  as  are  enjoyed  by  the  Portuguese  in  the 
mother  country.     But  Portugal  has  not  given  to  her  col-  ^;  ',    X^^^ 
onies  any  measure  of  local  self-government.     Their  admin^'  *^  '>  »   ^■^'T^ 
istration  is  under  direct  control  of  the  Parliament  at  Lisbon,\.  <;>    "      ^f* 
where  all  the  laws  for  the  colonies  are  framed,  notably         "' ,..  ^^   ■ 
those  referring  to  civil,  political  and  militar}^  organizations,  '•  iJp  *« 

custom  houses,    banking,   coining,  &c.     The  direction  of  ""^'■--,c. 

colonial  affairs  is  intrusted  to  the  Minister  of  Marine,  who 
is  also  Minister  for  the  Colonies.  As  an  advisory  board 
there  is  also  a  Council  for  the  Colonies. 

France,  whose  colonial  domain  had  acquired  such  vast  The  Coioniat 
proportions  under  the  shrewd  policy  of  Richelieu  and  Col-  France." 
bert,  only  to  be  wasted  away  as  a  result  of  maladministra- 
tion and  the  Napoleonic  wars,  has  of  late  extended  her 
ultramarine  possessions,  which  are  now  scattered  through- 
out the  world,  and  can  be  classified  under  two  heads: 
Colonies,  over  which  France  exerts  absolute  sovereignty 
and  which  she  directly  controls,  and  Protectorates^  over 
which  France  has  only  a  suzerain  right,  exercising  simply 
a  surveillance  of  their  native  administration. 

French  colonies  admit  of  three  divisions :  (1)  Algeria, 
which  rather  than  a  colony  is  considered  as  an  integral 
part  or  prolongation  of  the  territory  of  France,  and  is 
therefore  governed  as  one  of  the  departments;  (2)  colonies 
which  are  represented  in  Parliament  and  are  assimilated 
to  the  mother  country,  though  not  in  the  same  degree  as 
Algeria,  and  (3)  colonies  in  which  the  administration  is  in 

*La  Grande  Encyclopaedie,  Vol.  XI.,  p.  1096. 

—  41  — 


a  very  crude  and  rudimentary  state.      Among  the  lat- 
ter are  a   number  of   colonies  which  have   the   character 
of    military   posts    and   others    which   are   simply  penal 
colonies. 
How  Quade-        In  the  second  group  are  included  Guadeloupe  and  Mar- 

loupe  and  .     , 

Martinique  tmique,  which  en]oy  the  highest  degree  of  assimilation,  and 
which,  being  located,  like  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  in  the 
archipelago  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  merit  our  special  atten- 
tion as  subjects  for  comparison. 

Guadeloiipe  and  the  adjoining  islands  constitute  a  de- 
partment represented  by  thirty-six  Councilors  General. 
The  Council  General  elects  from  among  its  members  a 
Colonial  Committee,  composed  of  not  less  than  four  and 
not  more  than  seven  members,  and  said  committee  dis- 
cusses the  affairs  of  the  Department  with  the  Governor 
appointed  by  the  French  Government,  who  is  also  advised 
by  a  Privy  Council.  The  Municipal  Councils  of  the  several 
communes  are  constituted  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Com- 
munal Councils  in  France.  The  island  sends  one  Senator 
and  two  Deputies  to  Parliament.* 

The  administration  of  Martinique  is  very  similar  to  that 
of  Guadeloupe.  The  island  is  represented  in  Parliament 
by  one  Senator  and  two  Deputies,  and  in  the  Council  Gen- 
eral of  the  island  by  thirty-six  Councilors  elected  by  a 
very  small  number  of  voters,  these  very  rarely  taking  any 
interest  in  the  elections.** 

' '  The  French  Chambers,  in  accordance  with  parlia- 
mentary usage,  are  invested  with  a  very  extensive  right  of 
control  over  the  administration  of  the  colonies,  the  more 
so  since  all  the  important  colonies  are  therein  represented. 
But  Parliament  has  little  occasion  to  intervene,  as  the 
Government,  by  virtue  of  a  prerogative  which  has,  how- 


*  R6clus,  "Geographic  Universelle,"  Vol.  XVII.,  p.  874. 
**  Ibid. 

—  42  — 


ever,  been  contested,  frames  all  colonial  legislation  by 
means  of  decrees."* 

Neither  in  the  Dutch,  Portuguese  or  French  colonies, 
therefore,  is  there  to  be  found  a  measure  of  local  self 
administration  as  broad  as  the  one  about  to  be  applied  to 
Cuba  and  Porto  Rico. 

The  most  advanced  and  liberal  system  of  home  rule  yet     The  British 

North  America 

devised  for  the  government  of  a  colony  has  been  implanted  Act  of  1867. 
in  Canada  by  Great  Britain  under  the  provisions  of  the 
British  North  America  Act  of  1867.  But,  as  has  already 
been  stated,  this  autonomic  measure  retains  for  the  Crown 
indirect,  if  not  direct,  control  over  general  and  provincial 
legislation  in  the  Dominion,  not  only  by  virtue  of  the  veto, 
but  also  through  the  complexion  and  composition  of  the 
legislative  power,  one  chamber  being  in  a  measure  repre- 
sentative af  the  Crown. 

According  to  the  provisions  of  said  act  the  Queen 
appoints  the  Governor  General  (Sec.  10),  who  in  turn 
appoints  the  Lieutenant  Governors  of  the  Provinces. 
(Sec.  58.)  To  aid  and  advise  the  Governor  General  there 
is  a  privy  council,  the  members  of  which  are  chosen, 
summoned  and  removed  by  the  Governor  General. 
(Sec.  11.) 

The  Parliament  of  the  Dominion  consists  of  the  Queen, 
an  upper  house  styled  the  Senate,  and  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. (Sec.  17.)  The  Senate  consists  of  seventy- two 
members,  who  are  appointed  for  life  by  the  Governor 
General  (Sees.  21,  24,  29),  who  also  appoints  and  removes 
the  Speaker  of  the  Senate.  (Sec.  34.)  The  House  of 
Commons  is  summoned  from  time  to  time  by  the  Governor 
General,  and  can  also  be  dissolved  by  his  authority. 
(Sees.  38,  50.) 

All  bills  passed  by  both   houses  are   subject  to  Royal  crown  control 

Over  General 

assent.     (Sec.  55.)    Bills  assented  to  by  the  Governor  Gen-     Legislation. 


La  Grande  Encyclopaedie,  Vol.  XL,  p.  1109. 
—  43  — 


eral  may,  within   two  years,  be  disallowed  by  the  Queen 
and  consequently  annulled.     (Sec.  56.) 
Provincial  Quebec  is  the  only  province  that  has  two  houses  in  its 

Also  Con-  legislature ;  they  are  styled  the  Legislative  Council  and  the 
*""crown.  *"'  Legislative  Assembly  (Sec.  71).  The  legislature  of  Quebec 
is  a  transcript  of  the  Parliament  of  the  Dominion.  Coun- 
cilors are  appointed  by  the  Lieutenant  Governor  for  life 
(Sec.  72) ;  the  Speaker  of  the  Council  is  appointed  and  may 
be  removed  by  the  same  authority  (Sec.  77) ;  the  Assembly 
is  summoned  from  time  to  time,  and  may  also  be  dissolved 
by  the  Lieutenant  Governor  (Sees.  82,  85),  and  he  assents 
to  or  withholds  assent  from  bills  passed  by  the  legislature, 
in  Her  Majesty's  name.* 

As  regards  the  Judicature,  the  Governor  General  ap- 
points the  judges  of  the  Superior,  District  and  County 
Courts  in  each  province.     (Sec.  96.) 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that,  while  allowing  full  play  to 
home  legislation  in  the  Dominion,  the  Crown  still  retains 
supervision  and  supreme  control  over  provincial  legisla- 
tion, not  only  by  the  appointment  of  the  executive  officers 
and,  through    them,  of   Privy   Councilors,    Senators   and 
Legislative  Councilors,  but  also  through  the  assent  to  or 
dissent  from   all   bills  by   executive   officers,    and   lastly^ 
through   the   Crown   prerogative  of  disallowing  bills  as- 
sented to. 
Provincial  and       Provincial  and  municipal  legislation  in  Cuba  and  Porto- 
Assemblies  in  Rico,    Under  the   ncw   reforms,   will  be   decidedly   more 
Cuba  and      autonomic   in    character    than    that  of   the   Dominion  of 

Porto   Rico 

note  Autono-  Canada.     Both  provincial  and  municipal  assemblies  shall 

mic  Than  in 

Canada.       be  elective,  by  popular  vote,  and  ' '  shall  have  full  freedom 
of  action  as  regards  the  selection  of  their  presiding  officers, 
as  well  as  in  all  matters  not  contrary  to  law  or  to  the  re- 
spect due  to  the  rights  of  private  individuals."     (Basis  L) 
Inasmuch  as  Cuba  is  represented  by  Senators  and  Dep- 

*  A.  Todd,  '*  Parliamentary  Government  in  the  British  Colonies," 
p.  440. 

—  44  — 


uties  in  the  Spanish  Cortes,  wherein  general  legislation  is 
made  for  the  whole  nation,  no  parliament  need  be  estab- 
lished in  the  islands;  but  for  matters  pertaining  to  home 
legislation  a  Council  of  Administration  is  created,  composed  composition  of 

*»  '  '^  the  Council  of 

of   thirty-five   members,    of  whom    twenty-one   shall  be    Administra- 
tion. 
elected  by  popular  vote  among  the   different  provinces, 

the  others  being  designated  in  the  Decree  from  among 
men  who  are  representative  by  virtue  of  their  office,  posi- 
tion or  standing.  Such  are  the  Rector  of  the  University 
of  Havana,  the  Presidents  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
the  Economic  Society  of  Friends  of  the  Country,  the 
Sugar  Planters'  Association  and  the  Tobacco  Manufactur- 
ers' Union,  who  shall  be  Councilors  ex-offlcio ;  also  the 
five  ex-Senators  or  ex-Deputies  that  have  been  elected  to 
the  Cortes  the  greatest  number  of  times.  Finally,  the 
Chapters  of  the  Cathedrals  of  Havana  and  Santiago  de 
Cuba  shall  elect  one  of  the  Councilors,  the  trades  or 
guilds  of  Havana  another,  and  two  more  Councilors  shall 
be  elected  by  and  from  among  the  two  hundred  largest 
taxpayers  in  the  Province  of  Havana. 

The  composition  of  such  a  Council,  to  which  all  matters 
relating  to  taxation,  budget  of  expenses,  tariff,  banking 
and  education  are  intrusted,  will  insure  a  better  and  fuller 
representation  of  all  the  various  interests  in  the  Island 
than  would  be  the  case  if  the  Governor  General  were  to 
appoint  the  Councilors,  as  in  Canada,  or  if  the  election  of 
the  whole  Council  were  left  to  the  influences  and  intrigues 
of  electoral  wire-pulling. 

The  policy  of  assimilation  to  the  mother  country,  as  Advantages  of 

J         1  1  1        f-i       •        T-i  1  New  Regime 

developed  by  Spain,  France  and  Portugal,  would  seem  to  for  the 
be  best  adapted  to  the  government  of  colonies  of  the  Latin  ^''""Jfjies^*** 
race ;  yet,  in  the  new  regime  soon  to  be  implanted  in  the 
Spanish  West  Indies,  while  their  representation  and  par- 
ticipation in  the  National  Government  is  maintained,  a 
system  of  complete  self-government  is  introduced  into 
local  affairs  by  means  of  the  Council  of  Administration, 

—  45- 


\ 


/^   Of  THS        >^ 

uiiversitt; 


and  the  Provincial  and  Municipal  Assemblies,  such  as  will 
gradually  pave  the  way  to  a  broader  form  of  responsible 
government.  As  Senor  Canovas  points  out  in  the  pre- 
amble to  his  Decree,  the  Reform  Law  framed  by  Seiior 
Abarzuza,  which  the  Cortes  passed  in  1895,  "was  never  to 
be  considered  a  finality  in  an  evolution  initiated  by  the 
metropolis  with  so  much  forethought  and  good  faith." 
More  Liberal        Neither  should   the  broader  reforms  now  planned   by 

and     Progres- 
sive Reforms    Seiior   Canovas  be  considered   a    "finality";    for  in   the 

Expected.  ^bb  and  flow  of  the  political  tide  in  Spain  the  Liberal 
party  is  sure  to  succeed  the  Conservative  government  of 
Canovas  in  due  course  of  time,  and  then  the  regime  now 
adopted  for  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  which  will  amply 
satisfy  the  present  needs  of  the  inhabitants  of  those 
islands,  will  make  way  for  reforms  still  more  liberal  and 
progressive,  until  a  complete  system  of  autonomy  is  ob- 
tained. 

In  implanting  the  new  rule  Spain  may  well  say  to  the 
Cubans,  as  Lord  Carnarvon  said  to  the  Canadians  in 
1883:  "In  legislation,  in  self-government,  you  are  free, 
and  may  you  ever  remain  so ;  but  in  loyalty  to  the  Crown, 
in  love  to  the  mother  country,  may  you  ever  be  bound 
in  chains  of  adamant." 


46  — 


U^art  Occoncf. 

£xpos/fory  ^Preamble  and  S^oyal  *Pecree 
Sanctioning  the  !Plan  for  the  Cxtension  in 
Scope   of  the   ^tbarzuza    Reform    U^aw    of 

IS95. Commentary  :      expressions     of 

Opinion  by  ^arty  jCeaderj  and  the  J  ress. 
— Tjext  of  the  J^barzuza  jCatv. 

^y  J^ntonio  Cui/ds» 


EXPOSITORY    PREAriBLE. 


^^/^ 


OUR  MAJESTY:  Ever  since  Your  Majesty's  con- 
je)  fidence  was  reposed  in  the  present  Ministry  the 
war  in  Cuba  has  been  the  object  of  its  constant  anxiety, 
which  was  later  heightened  by  the  rebellion  in  the  Philip- 
pine Archipelago.  To-day  the  end  of  the  latter  seems  to 
be  near;  and  although  no  precise  date  can  be  predeter- 
mined for  the  ending  of  the  Cuban  insurrection,  its 
evident  abatement  suffices  to  warrant  certain  measures  in 
anticipation  of  and  adequate  to  the  probable  course  of 
events. 

It  is  important,  Your  Majesty,  that  the  facts  anteceding 
these  events  be  borne  in  mind.  It  is  daily  becoming  more 
evident  that  the  protracted  conspiracy  which  preceded  the 
war  was  not  entered  into  with  the  end  in  view  of  obtaining 

, .,  ,  •  1      ^  -1  Aims  of  Cuban 

any  concessions  compatible  with  Spanish  sovereignty,  as    conspirators. 

there  exists  ample  documentary  evidence  to  prove  that  the 

promoters  of  said  conspiracy  never  contemplated  anything 

but  the  independence  of  the  Island.   So  manifestly  was  this 

their  aim  that,  as  is  well  known,  the  Reform  Law  of  March 

15,   1895,  which  was  supported  in  the   Cortes  with  such 

good  faith  by  all  political  parties.  Peninsular  and  Cuban,  far 

from  restraining  the  revolutionary  movement,  hastened  its 

outbreak,  it  being  the  purpose  of  the  conspirators  to  prevent 

the  beneficial  effects  of  said  law  from  exerting  any  direct 

or  indirect   influence   toward  the   maintenance  of  peace. 

Thus,  forcibly,  the  Spanish  nation,  which  had  long  before 

granted  to  its  Antilles  all  the  political  rights  unanimously 

—49— 


accepted  by  modern  civilization,  and  which,  at  the  very- 
time  when  its  sovereignty  began  to  be  combatted,  was 
endeavoring  to  estabUsh  certain  reform  measures,  indis- 
putably liberal  and  in  the  direction  of  self-government, 
was  obliged  to  take  up  arms  in  defence  of  the  integrity  of 
its  territory.  Some  persons  were  led  by  their  generous 
spirit  to  believe  at  first  that  by  merely  putting  the  reforms 
into  practical  operation  the  plans  of  the  conspirators 
would  be  baffled;  but  the  majority  of  Spaniards  soon 
became  convinced  that  we  had  to  deal  with  another 
separatist  war,  the  inefficiency  of  which  would  have  to  be 
demonstrated  before  the  concessions  contained  in  the 
Reform  Law  could  give  any  useful  results.  To  this  con- 
viction and  to  the  manifest  impossibility — soon  afterward 
created  by  the  war — of  introducing  a  new  regime  in 
Cuba,  when  the  established  one  could  barely  be  enforced, 
Reasons  for  ^as  duc  the  postponement  in  putting  the  reforms  into 
'*'7*rT**"*"*  effect;  a  postponement  which  was  not  voluntary,  there- 
fore, but  unavoidable.  And  since  the  settlement  of  the 
matter  was  intrusted  to  the  force  of  arms,  not  through 
choice  of  the  mother  country,  but  much  against  her 
wishes,  it  has  been  necessary  for  us  to  wait  until  arms 
should  determine  the  precise  moment  in  which  to  employ 
other  means  dictated  by  reason  and  justice. 

Of  course  the  Reform  Law,  which  had  been  approved  by 
the  Cortes  (Congress),  was  never  to  be  considered  a  finality 
in  an  evolution  initiated  by  the  metropolis  with  so  much 
forethought  and  such  sincerity.  The  doubt  might  have 
been  entertained  at  one  time  whether  it  would  have  been 
advantageous  even  to  the  residents  of  the  Antilles  for 
them  to  enter  suddenly  on  an  autonomic  form  of  govern- 
ment, in  view  of  the  ill  effects  of  precipitate  action  in  such 
matters. 
Has^J"Artion  Without  going  further  than  Cuba,  we  see  that  such 
in  the  Hatter    jn  effccts   had   already  been  experienced    in  the    matter 

of  Reforms. 

of  the  sudden  and  unlimited  freedom  of  the  press,  which 

—50— 


was  so  largely  instrumental  in  bringing  about  the  insur- 
rection. 

All  this  notwithstanding,  what  Spanish  or  foreign 
statesman  could  suppose  that  where  such  liberal  political 
rights  existed,  the  mother  country  would  be  niggardly  in 
granting  administrative  reforms  to  work  in  harmony  with 
the  political  laws  ?  No,  it  could  not  in  good  faith  be 
assumed  that  the  Reform  Law  of  March   15,  1895,  was  a     The  Reform 

,._..,  1  ,  ,  1  Law  of   1895 

finality.     It   is  evident,   on  the  contrary,   that  the   only  Not  a  Finality. 
limit  not  to  be  exceeded  in  the  granting  of  concessions 
could  and  should  be  no  other  than  that  pointed  out  to  Your 
Majesty's   Government  by  the    inexorable   duty  of  pre- 
serving the  nation's  heritage. 

But,  as  has  been  seen,  to  destroy  the  latter  without  any 
regard  whatsoever  to  Spain's  historical  rights  in  the  prem 
ises  has  been  the  chief  intent  of  the  rebels, 
posely  ignored  all   peaceful  means  whereby  they 

while  in  the   free   exercise   of   political   rights,    establish      *''  •»  I^  j*  .J* 
an   administrative   autonomy  on  solid  bases.     Instead  oz^xf  ^     o        *^*J 


They  P«-,.^r3=^:^ 
hey  could,  •     ^^      Oi»"^^ 


that  they  pandered  to  the  impatient  longings  of  the  youth  n^^  ^J^fy  ^  ^j^„ 
of  the  land;  they  excited  the  most  anarchical  passions; 
they  denied  all  value  to  the  advantages  already  acquired; 
they  fostered  the  most  unconquerable  pessimism  on  the 
one  hand,  while  on  the  other  they  aroused  the  most  chi- 
merical hopes.  By  such  means  they  succeeded  in  having 
the  above-mentioned  law,  which  had  been  so  enthusiasti- 
cally passed  by  the  Cortes,  received  both  in  Cuba  and 
Porto  Rico  with  indifference,  if  not  with  disdain,  and  in 
spreading  the  insurrectionary  conflagration. 

Some  time  has  elapsed  since  those  events.     The  war,   Lessons  of  the 

War. 

With  its  manifold  disasters,  has  been  fruitful  in  severe  les- 
sons to  all  the  well-disposed  inhabitants  of  the  Island  of 
Cuba.  Nor  is  it  impossible  that  there  should  be  a 
reawakening  of  the  fraternal  feeling  so  long  dormant,  but 
which  among  people  of  the  same  race  can  never  be 
entirely  extinguished ;  and  certainly  the  persuasion  that, 

—51— 


after  all,  a  peaceful  and  steady  progress,' though  not  sat- 
isfying every  aspiration,  is  preferable  to  the  triumphs  of 
violence,  no  matter   by  whom  obtained,   is  daily  gaining 
ground, 
nisuken  Coincident  with  this  there  is  evidently  vanishing    the 

Opinion  as  to 

Spain's  mistaken  opinion  that  Spam  would  be  unable  to  carry  on 
streng:!  .  g^^Q^-]^Qj.  ^^r  like  the  former  one,  an  opinion  held  by 
those  who,  basing  their  judgment  on  insufficient  data, 
attributed  our  magnanimity  in  Morocco  to  impotency,  and 
who  therefore  thought  that  the  struggle  with  the  metrop- 
olis would  be  easy  and  of  brief  duration.  The  documents 
taken  on  various  occasions  from  the  insurgents  prove  con- 
clusively that  at  one  time  even  they  were  led  into  the 
same  error,  they  who  are  our  own  brothers,  and  who 
therefore  should  never  for  a  moment  have  doubted  the 
firmness  and  virility  of  those  of  their  race  in  the  mother 
country. 

In  the  meantime  it  is  well  known  that,  although  Spain 
has  been  compelled,  on  account  of  the  circumstances 
above  recited,  to  postpone,  and  may  be  still  obliged  to 
defer,  the  carrying  into  effect  of  the  liberal  administrative 
regime  that  is  essential  to  Cuba's  future  prosperity,  she 
has  never  given  up  the  intention  of  applying  in  due  time 
the  reforms  approved  by  the  Cortes,  nor  has  she  failed 
to  appreciate  the  necessity  of  broadening  their  scope  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  satisfy  both  the  Peninsulars  and  the 
Cubans  who  are  shedding  their  blood  on  our  side  in  the 
present  struggle,  as  well  as  all  the  inabitants  of  the  Island 
of  Cuba  who  have  the  common  welfare  at  heart.  And  the 
sincerity  with  which  the  new  regime  will  be  carried  out 
Spain's       1      ^i^g   home   Government   cannot,  reasonably,  even   be 

Intentions  of       -^  i  j  r 

Applying  the  questioned.     To   be    convinced    of   this,   we  have  but  to 

Reforms. 

remember  the  speech  pronounced  by  Your  Majesty  on 
the  occasion  of  the  opening  session  of  the  present  Cortes ; 
for  no  one  will  doubt  the  loyalty  of  Your  Majesty's 
Councilors,  whosoever  they  may  be,  and,  being  loyal,  it 

—52— 


would  be  folly  to  assume  that,  whatever  their  differences 
of  opinion  on  other  matters,  they  would  not  all  agree  in 
upholding  every  Royal  promise.  No ;  such  promises  can- 
not ever  be  allowed  to  remain  meaningless  phrases,  nor 
therefore  shall  those  most  solemn  ones  remain  such, 
whereby  Your  Majesty  offered  to  confer  upon  both  the 
Antilles,  as  soon  as  the  state  of  war  would  warrant  it, 
' '  an  administrative  and  economic  personality  of  a  purely 
local  character,  but  which  would  assure  the  unimpeded 
intervention  of  all  the  people  of  the  respective  islands  in 
their  own  affairs,  while  leaving  the  rights  of  sovereignty 
intact,  and  unimpaired  the  conditions  necessary  for  their 
maintenance." 

From  that  moment  it  was  not  to  be  questioned  that  any 
Spanish  Government  would  shape  its  course  to  that  end. 
In  regard  to  the  Ministry  which  is  to-day  favored  with 
Your  Majesty's  confidence,  it  may  be  said  that  not  only 
did  its  several  members  individually  co-operate  as  effi- 
ciently as  anyone  else  toward  the  approval  of  the  afore- 
mentioned Reform  Laws,  but  during  the  debate  on  the 
answer  to  the  last  speech  from  the  Crown  the  present 
Cabinet,  through  its  President  (the  Prime  Minister),  made 
certain  statements  which  met  with  the  approval  of  the 
most  liberal  of  its  political  opponents,  and  which  the 
Ministry  could  not,  without  jeopardy  to  its  honor,  fail  to 
uphold. 

One  of  the  statements.  Your  Majesty,  was  to  the  effect 
that  the  Government  would  not  wait  until  the  last  insur- 
gent had  disappeared  from  Cuba,  but  that  it  would  deem 
the  moment  when  the  final  victory  should  be  assured  and 
the  national  honor  satisfied  as  the  proper  time  to  meet  the 
real  necessity  felt  in  Cuba  of  testing  what  the  English 
term  "  self-government,"  /.  e.,  a  liberal  decentralization  of 
such  a  nature  as  to  allow  the  people  of  the  Island  to  man- 
age their  own  interests,  and  to  assume,  at  the  same  time, 
the  responsibility  of  their  own  acts,  relieving  the  metrop- 

—58—      . 


Spain's 

Pledges  to  Be 

Fulfilled. 


Any  Spanish 

Qovernment 

Would  Act 

Loyally. 


The  Proper 

rioment  in 

Which  to 

Establish    the 

Reforms. 


olis  therefrom.  Another  of  the  statements  made  by  the 
Prime  Minister  on  the  same  occasion  was  that,  aside  from 
the  serious  motives  hereinbefore  mentioned,  he  was  actu- 
ated to  move,  as  he  proposed  moving,  in  regard  to  the 
pohcy  for  the  West  Indies,  by  a  due  consideration  for  the 
erroneous  opinion  prevaiHng  in  America  and  in  Europe 
to  the  effect  that  we,  the  Peninsulars,  obstinately  denied 
to  our  brothers  in  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  that  which  other 
nations  granted  their  trans-oceanic  provinces,  an  opinion 
which  entailed  upon  us  considerable  injury.  Such  a  notion 
was  and  is  really  most  unjust,  as  is  made  evident  by 
our  colonial  traditions  and  by  our  own  conduct  for 
many  years  past  with  regard  to  the  political  govern- 
ment of  the  West  Indies.  Notwithstanding  this,  it  was 
not  fitting  that  the  Government  should  scorn  this 
A  Due  Regard  erroucous  Opinion,  but,  on  the  contrarv,  it  deemed  it  a 

for  Public  r  »  .  .'  . 

Opinion.  duty  to  dispel  the  causes  thereof  by  practical  measures.  It 
never  has,  in  truth,  been  advantageous  for  any  one  coun- 
try to  deviate  in  its  political  methods  from  the  general 
trend  of  those  of  other  nations,  and  the  history  of  Spain 
amply  bears  out  this  assertion ;  and  much  less  can  it  be 
advantageous  at  the  present  day,  when  the  solidarity  of 
all  civilized  peoples  is  such  that  a  mere  variance  from  the 
forms  peculiar  to  the  general  system  carried  out  by  the 
predominant  nations  is  usually  fruitful  of  trouble.  It 
is  manifest  that  national  dignity  will  always  and  in  all 
countries  spurn  any  measure  that  is  not  the  expression  of 
its  own  inmost  conscience,  spontaneously  conceived,  and 
much  more  will  it  spurn  foreign  imposition  of  any  sort. 
But  this  does  not  imply  that  any  power  should  systematic- 
ally disregard  public  opinion,  which,  when  legitimately 
expressed  and  generally  held,  is  entitled  to  the  same  re- 
spect from  the  great  human  associations  as  from  the 
individuals  constituting  them.  In  a  word.  Your  Majesty, 
everything  urges  your  Government  to  the  fulfillment  of 
the  promises  made  by  Your  Majesty  before  the  Cortes, 

—54— 


and  which  by  the  Royal  sanction,  and  with  the  consent 
of  his  colleagues,  were  repeated  and  extended  in  scope, 
also  before  the  Cortes,  by  the  Minister  who  has  now  the 
honor  of  addressing  Your  Majesty. 

There  is  nothing,  either,   in  what  he  submits  for  the    ^•■-  canova* 

*"  '  del  Castillo's 

Royal  approval  that  is  not  in  accord  with  his  own  politi-     Record  as  a 

T  1   •  r        ■  1  Cuban 

cal  record.  Before  anyone  else  he  devoted  himself  with  Reformer. 
energy  and  efficiency  to  the  work  of  suppressing  the  slave 
trade ;  over  thirty  years  ago  he  convened  an  important  and 
illu.^trious  assembly  of  delegates  from  the  West  Indies, 
intrusted  with  the  task  of  thoroughly  reforming  in  their 
respective  provinces  the  then  existing  regime  with  regard 
to  the  administration  of  local  affairs  and  to  the  labor  ques- 
tion. After  the  capitulation  of  Zanjdn  he  extended  to 
Cuba,  with  such  slight  modifications  as  were  at  the  begin- 
ning necessary,  the  exercise  of  the  same  political  rights  as 
were  enjoyed  in  the  Peninsula;  and,  lastly,  as  before  men- 
tioned, he  contributed,  together  with  all  his  political  fol- 
lowers, without  exception,  toward  the  approval  by  the 
Cortes  of  the  Reform  Law  of  March,  1895.  Such  is  the  ' 
record  to  which  the  undersigned  ventures  to  call  the  gra- 
cious attention  of  Your  Majesty,  not  assuredly  in  a  boastful 
spirit,  but  in  order  to  strengthen  the  certitude  which  the 
natives  of  the  West  Indies  should  be  possessed  of  that 
whatever  Spain  offers  she  stands  ready  to  fulfill  with 
inviolable  good  faith.  For,  if  the  present  Prime  Minister 
speaks  now,  more  particularly  in  his  own  name,  he  hastens 
to  acknowledge  and  proclaim  that  all  other  Councilors  in- 
vested with  Your  Majesty's  confidence  will  in  the  future 
act  in  like  manner,  because  Spanish  statesmen  can  differ 
in  regard  to  this  question  only  in  their  ability  or  in  the 
degree  of  success  they  may  attain,  but  never  in  their 
good  faith  or  in  their  loyalty  in  redeeming  the  pledges 
made  in  Your  Majesty's  name  and  on  behalf  of  the  nation. 
With  the  issuance  of  this  Decree  Spain  will  have  com- 
pleted all  that  it  is  incumbent  upon  her  to  do  in  order  to 

—55— 


hasten  the  end  of  Cuba's  misfortunes.     The  rest  of   the 

task,  i.  e.,   the  material  and  practical  application  of  the 

In  will      reforms,  will  not  depend  for  its  performance  exclusively 

Have  Done  Her   upon  the  mother  countrv  in  the  future.     It  will  also  be 

Duty.  ^ 

necessary  that  the  insurgents,  convinced  as  they  must  be 
of  the  futility  of  their  struggle,  and  moved  to  compassion 
by  the  desolation  and  ruin  of  their  native  land,  lay  down 
their  arms  soon  and  allow  free  play  to  the  inexhaustible 
generosity  of  the  mother  country,  ever  ready  to  take  them 
back  into  her  fold.  Although  such  hopes  may  be  cherished 
as  to  many  of  them,  perhaps  it  would  be  presumptuous  to 
entertain  them  as  to  all.  For  reasons  already  set  forth 
by  Your  Majesty's  Government,  it  may  be  deemed  prob- 
able that  there  will  not  be  wanting  men  who,  blind  to 
their  own  as  well  as  to  their  country's  best  interests,  will 
endeavor  to  prolong,  for  however  brief  a  period,  the  de- 
plorable evils  which  now  afflict  the  Island,  imagining,  per- 
chance, that  Spain  will  tire  of  her  sacrifices  and  raise  the 
flag  of  peace  upon  any  terms,  leaving  that  beautiful  land, 
together  with  the  lives  and  property  of  its  loyal  inhabitants 
enlisted  in  our  cause,  at  the  mercy  of  the  irreconcilable 
•  Will  advocates  of  separation  from  the  mother  country.  As  to 
Never  Aban-    the  present  Government,  it  may  here  be  said  that  no  one 

don  the  Island. 

will  ever  obtain  its  co-operation  in  such  a  course. 

But  it  is  time.  Your  Majesty,  to  acknowledge  that  meas- 
ures of  such  scope  as  those  herein  proposed  are  not  of  the 
kind  that  in  free  countries  usually  come  within  the 
attributes  of  the  Executive.  Only  the  manifestly  extraor- 
dinary nature  of  the  present  circumstances  could  have 
persuaded  Your  Majesty's  Government  to  adopt  them  in 
the  form  of  a  Decree,  upon  which  the  Council  of  State  is 
to  be  heard,  and  which  is  to  be^  duly  laid  before  the 
Cortes,  in  order  that  it  may  receive  from  them  the  utmos;t 
legality  that  it  may  require.  For  less  obvious  reasons 
other  governments  have  considered  themselves  compelled 
to  act  in  like  manner,  asking  afterward  for  what,   bor- 

— 5G— 


rowing  the  term  from  the  English,  is  now  called  in  Spain 
a  "  Bill  of  Indemnity."  To  have  made  such  a  matter  the 
subject  of  a  prolonged  and  critical  discussion  while  the 
war  is  waging  would  have  invited  troubles  so  self-evident 
that  it  is  needless  to  particularize  them  here.  Our  Con-  why  the 
stitution  itself  recognizes  in  the  Crown  the  right,  in  the  ^ot  convenL 
event  of  a  foreign  war,  both  of  declaring  it  and  of  making  *",|^*p*|^^" 
and  ratifying  peace,  submitting  afterward  to  the  Cortes  neasures. 
a  documentary  report  thereon.  And  although  the  insur- 
rection in  Cuba  is  not  in  truth  a  foreign  war,  it  may  well 
be  compared  with  those  of  that  nature  that  we  have 
sustained  in  the  past,  on  account  of  the  vast  sacrifices  in 
men  and  money  that  it  entails  upon  the  nation.  There 
are  not  lacking,  therefore,  plausible  reasons  for  proceed- 
ing in  the  same  manner  that  the  Constitution  provides  in 
the  case  of  a  war  with  an  independent  state.  But  the 
Government  is  not  seeking  at  all  to  shirk  its  responsibility 
in  endeavoring  by  means  of  this  Decree  to  facilitate  the 
ultimate  accomplishment  of  peace.  As  the  Cabinet  is 
ready  to  face  its  responsibility  before  the  Cortes,  the 
respect  in  which  the  latter  are  held  by  the  former  simply 
induces  it  to  present  here  excuses  the  validity  of  which 
it  is  incumbent  exclusively  on  them  to  decide.  In  the 
meantime,  as  the  thirteenth  paragraph.  Section  45,  of  the 
organic  law  of  the  Council  of  State  requires  that  this 
body  be  consulted  in  regard  to  ' '  any  innovation  in  the 
laws,  ordinances,  rules  and  regulations  applicable  to  our 
trans-oceanic  provinces,"  the  present  Ministry  shall  not 
fail  to  meet  this  essential  requirement  in  a  matter  of  such 
moment  as  the  one  under  consideration,  even  if  it  be  only 
in  order  to  strengthen  its  own  judgment  with  that  of  the 
supreme  consultative  body  of  the  Realm. 

Not  all  the  problems  involved  in  the  government  of  the 
West  Indies  will  be  solved,  however,  by  means  of  the 
Decree  herewith  submitted.  Some  of  them  give  us  time  to 
seek  their  solution  from  the  Cortes — a  course,  moreover, 

—57— 


other 

Problems  to 

Be    Solved. 


Judicial 


which  their  exceptional  character  demands.  One  of  these 
is  in  reference  to  the  determination,  in  a  precise  and  abso- 
lute manner,  of  the  expenses  necessary  to  the  maintenance 
of  sovereignty,  and  of  all  other  expenses,  aside  from  those 
purely  local,  that  shall  correspond  to  Cuba,  as  fixed 
charges  upon  her  Budget.  This  is  a  matter  that  must  be 
submitted  to  the  Cortes,  as  it  affects  the  Peninsular  prov- 
inces equally  with  those  of  the  Island. 

Another  of  the  problems  referred  to  above  is  the  one 
Organization,  relative  to  the  judicial  organization;  for,  though  all  judi- 
cial functionaries  are  already  included  in  one  civil  list  with 
those  of  the  Peninsula,  and  though  some  rules  are  laid 
down  in  the  present  Decree  for  their  appointment  to  fill 
vacancies  that  correspond  to  the  "turn  of  selection"*  for 
the  West  Indies,  there  remain  some  essential  points  to  be 
covered  by  legislative  enactment,  among  others  the  pro- 
portionate share  that  the  West  Indies  and  the  other  Spanish 
provinces  shall  have  in  the  number  of  aspirants  to  the 
national  magistracy. 

No  reference  is  made,  either,  in  the  present  Decree  to 
electoral  reform,  because  certain  reasons  of  a  high  order 
bar  the  introduction  by  the  Government  of  changes  in  the 
existing  system  for  the  election  of  Representatives  and 
Senators,    without   the   concurrence   of  the   Cortes;   and 

*  In  almost  every  branch  of  the  Spanish  Government  service  the 
officers  and  functionaries  thereof  are  registered  in  the  respective 
civil  list  according  to  rank  and  to  seniority  in  each  rank ;  and  in  fill- 
ing vacancies  in  any  but  the  lowest  rank,  the  appointing  officer  is  not 
only  obliged  to  promote  one  of  those  registered  in  the  rank  immedi- 
ately mferior  to  the  one  in  which  the  vacancy  is  to  be  filled,  but  he 
is  obliged  to  follow  two  alternate  "  turns,"  viz.,  to  the  first  vacancy 
occurring  in  any  given  class  he  is  to  promote  the  employee,  officer  or 
functionary  heading,  as  senior,  the  list  of  the  class  next  inferior  in 
rank,  this  beingtermed  the  "  turn  of  seniority."  To  the  next  vacancy 
occurring  in  the  same  class  he  may  promote,  at  his  discretion,  any 
employee,  officer  or  functionary  included  in  the  list  of  the  class  next 
inferior  in  rank,  provided  that  the  person  so  selected  is  otherwise 
legally  entitled  to  promotion,  there  being  certain  requirements  such 
as  a  certain  number  of  years  of  service  in  each  rank.  This  is  called 
the  "turn  of  discretionary  selection." — {Translator's  Note.) 


The    Electoral 
Reform. 


—  58 


because  to  the  above  system,  which  is  the  primary  one, 
all  others  relative  to  Provincial  Assemblies  and  Munici- 
palities have  always  been  subordinate. 

The  Government  is  not  yet  in  a  position  to  determine      when  the 

Reforms 

how  bnef  or  how  long  the  period  may  be  within  which  the  should  Be  Put 
present  reforms  can  be  put  into  effect  in  Cuba  and,  conse-  "  **"*' 
quently,  in  Porto  Rico,  although  from  all  the  data  at  hand 
at  the  moment  of  draughting  the  following  Decree  the  out- 
look seems  very  satisfactory  and  there  are  many  indications 
that  peace  is  not  far  off ;  but,  at  any  rate,  the  Government 
feels  that  it  must  be  prepared  to  put  such  reforms  into 
practical  operation  without  delay  as  soon  as  may  be  pos- 
sible. To  this  end,  therefore,  the  Council  of  State 
shall  be  immediately  consulted,  although  the  Decree  of 
Reforms  shall  not  be  enforced  until  all  necessary  condi- 
tions are  complied  with.  This  done,  and  the  intentions  of 
Spain  being  from  this  moment  known,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  a  conciliatory  spirit  will  prevail  in  the  West  Indies, 
thus  hastening  by  easy  means  that  which  the  country 
has  always  longed  for ;  that  which  the  civilized  world  de- 
sires, and  that  which  Your  Majesty  and  the  Government, 
as  much  or  more  than  anyone  else,  have  striven  for  in 
the  past  and  will  continue  in   the   future   to  strive  for — a 

fruitful  and  lasting  peace. 

Your  Majesty: 

I  have  the  honor  to  be  Your  Majesty's 

Most  humble  servant, 

ANTONIO    CANOVAS    DEL   CASTILLO. 


_  59  - 


ROYAL  DECREE. 

upon  the  proposition  of  my  Prime  Minister,  and  with 

the  concurrence  of  the  Council  of  Ministers,  in  the  name  of 

my    august     son,     King  Alfonso    XIII.,    and    as    Queen 

Regent  of  the  Kingdom,  I  hereby  decree,  as  follows : 

The  Heasure        Solc    Scction — The  plan  for  extending   the   scope   of 

to  Be  Sub- 

mittedtothe  the  reforms  for  the  Island  of  Cuba  which  were  embodied 
in  the  law  of  March  15,  1895,  and  which  plan  shall  in  due 
time  apply  as  well  to  the  reforms  already  put  in  force  in 
Porto  Rico,  shall  be  submitted  to  the  full  Council  of  State, 
for  its  prompt  consideration  and  report,  in  accordance  with 
the  provisions  of  Section  45,  paragraph  13,  of  the  organic 
law  of  that  Supreme  National  Advisory  Body. 

Given  in  the  Palace  on  the  fourth  day  of  February,  in 
the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety-seven. 

MARIA  CRISTINA. 
The  Prime  Minister, 
Antonio  Canovas  del  Castillo. 


Council  of 
State. 


—  60 


!^^^^P<..'A 


PLAN    FOR   THE    EXTENSION    IN    SCOpfe      ^J? JTIIl- 


OF    THE 

REFORM  LAW  OF  HARCH   15,   1895. 


ArtieU^  1. 

The  Law  of  March  15,  1895,  relative  to  Reforms  in  the 
system  of  Government  and  Civil  Administration  in  the 
Island  of  Cuba,  shall  be  extended  and  given  a  wider  scope 
in  accordance  with  the  following  bases,  which  so  far  as 
may  be  necessary  shall  be  amplified  and  developed  by 
means  of  Rules  and  Regulations. 

Basis  I. — The  Boards  of   Aldermen   and  the  Provincial 

Powers  of  the 

Assemblies  of  the  Island  of  Cuba  shall  enjoy  such  liberty      Provincial 

,  .,,.11  J.    1  Assemblies 

of  action  as  may  be  compatible  with  observance  or  Jaw    ^^a  Boards  of 
and  with  the  rights  of  private  individuals.  Aldermen. 

They  shall  be  free  to  appoint  and  remove  all  their 
employees. 

The  Presidents  of  the  Provincial  Assemblies  shall  be 
elected  by  said  assemblies  from  among  their  own  mem- 
bers. In  each  Provincial  Assembly  there  shall  be  a  Pro- 
vincial Executive  Committee,  consisting  of  Assemblymen 
elected  semi-annually  by  the  Assembly.  The  Provincial 
Executive  Committee  shall  elect  its  chairman. 

Mayors    and    Deputy    Mayors  shall    be   elected  to  the 

^  ^       ■>  •>  Mayors:    How 

respective  offices  by  the  Board  of  Aldermen  from  among  Elected. 
their  own  members.  The  Mayors  shall  without  limitation 
exercise  the  executive  functions  of  the  municipal  govern- 
ment, as  the  executive  officers  of  the  Boards  of  Aldermen. 
A  Provincial  Assembly  may  stay  the  execution  of  reso- 
lutions adopted  by  any  of  the  Boards  of  Aldermen  under 
its  jurisdiction ;  it  may  also  censure,  warn,  fine  or  suspend 
the  members  thereof,  whenever  said  members  shall  exceed 

—  61  — 


the  limits  of  their  municipal  jurisdiction ;  in  such  case  the 
Assembly  shall  report  such  action  to  the  Civil  Governor 
for  his  approval  and  for  its  execution. 

Should  the  Civil  Governor  not  approve  the  action  of  the 

Provincial  Assembly,   either    in  whole    or   in  part,   said 

Assembly  may  appeal  to  the  full   Supreme  Court  of  the 

corresponding  territory,  whose  decision  shall  be  final. 

The  RaUing:  of       For  the  purpose  of  raising  the  revenue  necessary  to  meet 

Revenue. 

their  expenses  and  obligations,  the  Municipal  Coun- 
cils and  Provincial  Assemblies  shall  be  vested  with  all  the 
authority  compatible  with  the  system  of  taxation  govern- 
ing the  general  and  local  Budgets  of  the  Island;  it  being 
understood  that  the  revenues  for  the  provincial  Budgets 
shall  be  independent  of  those  for  the  municipal  Budgets. 
Public  The  establishment  of  public  educational  institutions  in 

Education. 

the  provinces  shall  devolve  exclusively  upon  their  respective 
Provincial  Assemblies,  and  of  those  in  the  cities  and  towns 
upon  the  Boards  of  Aldermen. 

The  Governor  General  and  the  Civil  Governors  shall  have 
the  right  of  intervention  in  these  matters  only  to  the  extent 
necessary  to  insure  compliance  with  the  general  laws, 
and  to  satisfy  themselves  that  the  new  charges  imposed 
by  the  local  Budgets  are  not  in  excess  of  the  respective 
provincial  andniunicipal  resources. 
Financial  The  annual  financial  statements  rendered  by  the  Mayors, 

statements  by  j  j  i 

the  Mayors,  which  shall  includc  all  receipts  and  expenditures,  both 
ordinary  and  special,  shall  be  published  in  their  respective 
localities,  and  whatever  may  be  their  total  amount 
shall  be  audited,  and  objected  to  or  approved,  as  the  case 
may  be,  by  the  Municipal  Council,  after  hearing  any  pro- 
tests offered  against  them.  From  the  action  of  the 
Municipal  Council  appeal  may  be  taken  to  the  Provincial 
Executive  Committee,  and  in  cases  where  the  latter  shall 
declare  the  liability  of  any  official  or  officials,  an  appeal 
may  be  taken  to  the  full  Supreme  Court  of  each  respec- 
tive district,  which  shall  decide,  without  further  recourse, 

—  62  — 


in  conformity  with  the  administrative  and  penal  laws  that 
may  be  applicable  thereto. 

Basis  II. — The  Council  of  Administration  shall  consist  council  of 
of  thirty-five  Councilors.  Of  these,  twenty-one  shall  be  tf™'"'J,*^™' 
elected  as  follows  by  the  same  voters  who  are  entitled  to  Constituted. 
suffrage  at  the  elections  for  Assemblymen  and  Aldermen, 
and  according  to  the  provisions  of  Article  III.  of  the 
Reform  law  of  March  15,  1895,  as  follows:  Five  by  the 
Province  of  Havana,  four  each  by  the  Provinces  of  Santa 
Clara  and  Santiago  de  Cuba,  three  each  by  the  Provinces 
of  Pinar  del  Rio  and  Matanzas,  and  two  by  the  Province 
of  Puerto  Principe.  Nine  other  Councilors  shall  be  the 
following:  The  Rector  of  the  University  of  Havana,  the 
President  of  the  Havana  Chamber  of  Commerce,  the 
President  of  the  Economical  Society  of  the  Friends  of  the 
Country,  the  President  of  the  Sugar  Planters'  Association, 
the  President  of  the  Tobacco  Manufacturers'  Union,  a 
member  of  the  Chapters  of  the  Cathedrals  of  Havana 
and  Santiago  de  Cuba,  which  Chapters,  assembled  as 
electoral  colleges,  shall  elect  such  member  every  four 
years;  a  representative  of  all  the  trades  associations  of 
Havana,  to  be  chosen  every  fourth  year  by  the  presi- 
dents of  such  trade  associations,  and  two  Councilors 
representing  the  principal  taxpayers  of  the  Province  of 
Havana,  to  be  elected  every  four  years,  one  by  the 
hundred  citizens  paying  the  highest  taxes  on  real  estate 
and  the  other  by  the  hundred  paying  the  highest  taxes 
on  industries,  commerce,  arts  and  professions.  The  re- 
maining five  Councilors  shall  be  the  Senators  or  Repre- 
sentatives to  the  Cortes  who  shall  have  been  elected  the 
greatest  number  of  times  at  general  elections,  seniority  of 
age  determining  where  other  conditions  are  equal. 

The  Governor  General  shall  be  the  Honorary  Presiden  t  president  of 
of  the  Council,  and  he  shall  preside,  without  vote,  at  any  the  council, 
session  he   may  attend.     The  regular  President  shall  be 

—  63  — 


The  Office  of 
Councilor. 


Appointment 

and  Removal 

of  the 

Council's 

Employees. 


appointed  by  the  Governor  General  from  among-  its 
members. 

The  office  of  Councilor  shall  be  without  compensation, 
shall  carry  personal  liability,  and,  once  accepted,  cannot  be 
resigned  .except  for  cause.  The  office  shall  also  be  incom- 
patible with  that  of  Representative  to  the  Cortes  or  Sen- 
ator, and  anyone  eligible  to  the  two  shall  elect  between 
them  within  two  months. 

Candidates  having  the  qualifications  necessary  for  elec- 
tion as  Representatives  to  the  Cortes,  and  having  resided 
two  years  on  the  Island,  may  be  elected  Councilors. 

In  no  case  shall  those  debarred  from  election  as  Repre- 
sentatives to  the  Cortes  by  Section  19  of  the  Provincial 
Law,  now  in  force,  be  elected  Councilors. 

The  Council  shall  have  a  Secretary's  office,  with  an  ade- 
quate force  for  the  transaction  of  the  affairs  hereby 
assigned  to  it. 

The  power  of  appointment  and  removal  of  all  employees 
of  the  Secretary's  office  shall  be  solely  and  exclusively 
vested  in  the  Council. 

The  Council  shall  elect  every  six  months  a  Committee 
on  Reports,  whose  duty  shall  be  to  report  upon  all  matters 
coming  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Council. 

Said  committee  shall  consist  of  five  Councilors,  each  of 
whom  shall  be  entitled  to  such  compensation  as  the  Council 
may  determine,  but  which  shall  not  exceed  the  sum  of 
$2,000  for  each  term  of  six  months. 


Expenses 

Inherent  to 

Sovereignty. 


Levying  of 
Taxes. 


Basis  III. — The  Cortes  shall  determine  the  expenditures, 
which  shall  necessarily  be  chargeable  as  expenses  inherent 
to  sovereignty,  and  every  three  years  shall  fix  the  total 
amount  of  revenue  required  therefor;  this  without  preju- 
dice to  the  right  of  the  Cortes  to  alter  this  provision. 

The  Council  of  Administration  shall  each  year  levy  such 
taxes  and  imposts  as  may  be  necessary  to  provide  the  total 
amount  of  revenue  required  and  to  meet  the  expenditures 

—  64  — 


approved  by  the  Cortes  in  the  national  Budget  for  the 
Island ;  this  without  prejudice  to  the  constitutional  right  of 
the  Cortes  to  introduce  such  changes  as  it  may  deem 
proper  in  the  premises. 

The  Council  of  Administration  may  renounce  the  powers 
conferred  upon  it  by  the  last  preceding  paragraph;  in 
which  case  it  shall  be  understood  that  it  also  renounces, 
for  the  term  covered  by  the  Budget,  the  powers  conferred 
by  Sections  1  and  2  of  the  first  paragraph.  Basis  IV. 

Should  the  Council  of  Administration  surrender  said 
powers,  or  should  it  fail  on  the  first  day  of  June  of  any 
year  to  levy  the  taxes  and  imposts  for  the  revenue  required 
to  meet  the  expenditures  included  in  the  national  Budget 
for  the  Island,  the  Governor  General  shall  supply  such 
default,  so  far  as  it  may  exist,  and  either  in  part  or  in 
whole,  through  the  Chief  of  the  Treasury. 

The  Council  of  Administration  shall  also  prepare  and 
approve  every  year  the  local  Budget  for  the  Island  of  Cuba, 
in  order  to  make  provision  for  such  branches  of  the  public 
service  as  are  intrusted  to  it.  It  shall  also  include  in  said 
Budget  the  necessary  appropriations  for  the  personnel  and 
the  supplies  for  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  the  General 
Government  of  Cuba,  for  the  Bureau  of  Local  Administra- 
tion, for  the  Department  of  Finance,  for  the  office  of  the 
Auditor,  and  for  the  offices  of  the  six  Provincial  Governors 
of  the  Island,  which  expenses  are  hereby  declared  to  be 
obligatory  charges  upon  said  Budget. 

In  regard  to  the  obligatory  charges  just  mentioned,  the 
Governor  General  shall,  should  the  case  arise,  become  vested 
with  the  powers  mentioned  in  the  fourth  paragraph  of 
the  present  basis,  relative  to  the  national  Budget  for  the 
Island. 

Should  any  changes  or  modifications  adopted  by  the 
Council  of  Administration  affecting  services  chargeable,  as 
fixed  obligations,  against  the  local  Budget  for  the  Island, 
not  be  approved  by  the  Governor  General,  they  shall  be 


The  Council  to 
Prepare 
Budgets. 


—  65  — 


Revenues  for 
Local  Budgets. 


Educational 
institutions. 


submitted  to  the  Minister  for  the  Colonies  for  final  action, 
to  be  taken  by  resolution  of  the  Cabinet,  after  first 
obtaining  a  report  thereon  from  the  Council  of  State. 
In  default  of  any  action  by  the  Minister  within  two 
months,  the  action  of  the  Council  of  Administration  shall 
stand. 

The  Council  of  Administration  shall  approve  the  local 
Budget  for  the  Island  before  the  first  day  of  June  in  each 
year. 

The  revenues  of  the  local  Budget,  besides  those  already 
provided,  shall  consist  of  such  taxes  and  imposts  as  the 
Council  of  Administration  may  determine  and  as  shall  not 
conflict  with  the  sources  of  revenue  applied  to  the  national 
Budget  for  the  Island. 

The  establishment  of  new  educational  institutions  pre- 
paratory for  the  various  Government  services*,  the  Army 
and  Navy  excepted,  shall  devolve  upon  the  Council  of 
Administration,  whenever  such  institutions  shall  be  of  a 
general  character  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  entire  Island. 

The  Council  of  Administration  may  file  with  the  Gov- 
ernor General  claims  or  protests,  should  there  be  occa- 
sion for  them,  against  any  resolution  or  action  taken  by 
the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Local  Administration. 


Powers  of  the        Basis  /K.— The  Council   of  Administration  shall  have 

Council  in 

the  natter  of    the  f ollowing  powers  in  the  matter  of  customs  tariff : 

Customs 

Tariff.  1-   To  make,  upon  the  recommendation  of  the   Chief  of 

the  Treasury  of  the  Island,  the  rules  and  regulations  for 
the  administration  of  the  customs  revenue. 

3.  To  take  such  action  as  it  may  deem  advisable,  with 
the  advice  of  the  Chief  of  the  Treasury,  or  upon  his 
recommendation,  in  regard  to  export  duties. 

3.  To  fix  or  change  at  its  discretion,  with  the  advice  of 
the  Chief  of  the  Treasury,  or  upon  his  recommendation. 


*  See  notes  on  pages  58  and  71. 

—  66  — 


the  fiscal  duties  to  be  levied  upon  imports  through  the 
Custom  Houses  of  the  Island  of  Cuba. 

4.  To  report  upon  and  to  recommend  any  changes 
which  experience  may  suggest  in  the  general  or  supple- 
mentary dispositions  of  the  tariff,  or  in  the  schedules, 
notes  or  repertory  thereof ;  said  report  to  necessarily  pre- 
cede any  action  taken  thereon. 

These  powers  are  granted  subject  to  the  following  limi- 
tations : 

1.  A  reasonable  and  necessary  protection  shall  be  main-     Protection  to 
tained  in  favor  of    national  products  and  manufactures,        products. 
provided  they  be  directly  of  national  origin,   as  regards 

their  importation  into  the  Island  of  Cuba;  such  protec- 
tion to  be  accorded  by  means  of  differential  duties  to  be 
levied  at  the  minimum  rates,  hereafter  to  be  determined, 
equally  upon  all  products  of  foreign  origin. 

2.  The  fiscal  duties  to  be  fixed  by  the  Council  of  Ad- 
ministration shall  not  be  differential,  but  must  apply 
equally  upon  all  imports,  those  of  national  origin  included. 

3.  Such  export   duties  as  may  be  established  shall  not    ^^po^  Duties. 
be  differential,  but  shall  be  applied  equally  to  the  same  class 

of  products,  whatever  their  destination.  Exception  may  be 
made,  however,  in  favor  of  products  exported  directly  for 
national  consumption,  in  which  exclusive  case  the  Council 
of  Administration  may  grant  exemption  from  or  a  differ- 
ential reduction  in  the  duties  by  it  established. 

4.  The  prohibition  to  export  any  product,  should  this 
at  any  time  be  ordered,  shall  not  apply  to  products 
exported  directly  for  national  consumption.    ■ 

5.  The  powers  granted  by  virtue  of  Sections  1  and  3  of 
the  first  paragraph  of  this  present  basis  shall  be  exercised 
by  the  Council  of  Administration  or,  in  default  thereof,  by 
the  Governor  General,  in  accordance  with  the  obligations 
imposed  by  the  second  paragraph,  Basis  III.  The  fiscal 
import  duties,  and  also  the  export  duties,  should  such  be 
established,  shall  remain  unchanged  during  the  term  cov- 

—  67  — 


Porm 

of  Customs 

Tariff. 


ered  by  the  Budget  which  is  based  upon  the  revenues  that 
those  duties  are  estimated  to  provide. 

The  import  tariff  shall  be  embodied  in  the  following 
form  :  The  duties  shall  be  set  forth  in  two  columns,  viz., 
the  first  shall  contain  the  fiscal  duties  to  be  levied  and  col- 
lected on  all  importations  of  whatever  origin,  national 
included  ;  the  second  shall  contain  the  differential  duties 
to  be  levied  equally  upon  all  products  of  foreign  origin ; 
these  last  mentioned  duties  to  constitute  the  necessary 
protection  which  is  secured  to  national  products »  and 
manufactures. 
Ptocai  Duties.  The  fiscal  duties  comprised  in  the  first  or  general  column 
may  be  freely  altered  by  the  addition  of  such  extra  rates 
of  duties  and  by  such  reductions  or  exemptions  as  the 
Council  of  Administration  may  determine,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  the  powers  hereinbefore  granted,  subject  to  the 
limitations  also  hereinbefore  expressed. 

The  Cortes  shall  determine  the  maximum  of  protection 
to  be  maintained  in  favor  of  national  products  and  manu- 
factures. The  maximum  thus  established  shall  not  be 
altered  without  the  concurrence  of  the  Cortes,  and  this 
concurrence  shall  also  be  necessary  for  any  changes  in  the 
column  of  differential  duties. 

The  initial  duties  to  be  levied  upon  all  the  articles  com- 
prised in  the  various  schedules  of  the  tariff  and  which  are 
to  constitute,  for  the  first  time,  the  differential  column 
before  mentioned,  shall  be  fixed  by  the  Government. 

These  differential  duties,  which  need  not  in  general  be 
higher  than  20  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  shall  not  exceed  35 
per  cent,  ad  valorem^  even  on  such  articles  as  may  require 
this  exceptional  and  maximum  rate.  A  special  act  of  the 
Cortes  shall  be  required  in  order  to  exceed  the  above  limit 
of  35  per  cent,  on  any  article.  Such  act  may  raise  the 
limit  to  40  pei  cent,  ad  valorem. 

The  Government  shall  order  a  revision  of  the  official 
schedules  of  valuations  of  merchandise  after  a  full  hearing 


naximum  of 
Protection. 


Differential 
Duties. 


of  all  interests.  Whenever,  as  a  result  of  the  revision  of  said 
schedule  of  valuations,  and  by  reason  of  the  limitations 
established  by  the  preceding  rule,  it  shall  appear  that  a 
reduction  should  be  made  in  the  differential  duty  on  any 
specified  article  of  the  Tariff,  the  finding  of  said  fact  shall 
of  itself  operate  to  effect  such  reduction.  The  official 
schedules  of  valuation  of  merchandise,  once  revised,  shall 
remain  unchanged  for  the  term  of  ten  years,  imless  other- 
wise provided  by  the  Cortes. 

It  being  impossible  to  carry  immediately  into  effect  all 
the  provisions  that  this  basis  establishes  for  the  future, 
.and  it  being  deemed  inadvisable  to  further  delay  the 
revision  of  the  Tariff  now  in  operation  in  Cuba,  the  Min- 
ister for  the  Colonies  shall,  by  virtue  of  legal  authority 
now  vested  in  him,  and  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  June 
28,  1895,  publish  and  put  into  effect  a  provisional  Tariff, 
the  general  lines  and  the  schedules  of  which  shall  be 
adjusted  to  the  requirements  of  this  present  basis;  and 
the  fiscal  duties  which  may  be  thus  fixed  and  which  may 
appear  in  their  respective  column,  and  also  whatever  may 
relate  to  export  duties  or  regulations,  shall  be  provisionally 
put  into  force. 

Commercial  treaties  or  conventions  which  shall  affect 
the  customs  tariff  of  the  Island  of  Cuba  must  be  of  a  special 
character.  The  benefits  of  the  clause  of  the  "  most  favored 
nation,"  or  any  equivalent  thereof,  shall  not  be  granted 
therein.  The  Council  of  Administration  shall  be  con- 
sulted as  to  the  advisability  of  granting  any  special  con- 
cessions which  the  Government  may  have  in  view,  in  nego- 
tiating any  treaty,  before  the  latter  shall  be  completed 
for  submission  to  the  Cortes. 


Revision  of 

Schedules   of 

Valuation. 


Provisional 
Tariff. 


Commercial 
Treaties. 


Basis  V. — The  Governor  General  shall  have  the  power       Power  of 

r      1  r^  r     Appointment 

to  appomt  and  remove  all  the  employees  of  the  office  of  of  Employees, 
the  Secretary  of  the  General  Government  of  the  Island, 
of  the  Bureau  of  Civil  and  Economic  Administration  and 


69  — 


of  the    Provincial  Governments,     as    provided    in    Basis 
VII. 

Basis  VI, — The  office  of  the   Secretary  of  the  General 
Government  shall  be  under  the  direction  of   a   Superior 
Chief  of  Administration. 
Chiefs  of  The  Chief  of  the  Treasury  of  the   Island  of  Cuba,  the 

Bureaus  to 

Nominate       Comptroller  and  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Local  Adminis- 
ppo  n  ees.     {-j-^j-jqj^  shall  proposc  to  the  Governor  General  the  appoint- 
ment   of    all    the   employees   of   their   respective  offices, 
according  to  the  provisions  of  Basis  VII.,  and  they  may 
likewise  propose  their  removal. 
Postal  The  Bureau  of  Posts  and  Telegraphs,  under  the  direction 

and  Telegrapli 

Service.-  of  a  Chief  of  Administration,  shall  have  under  its  charge 
the  services  relative  to  postal  and  telegraphic  communi- 
cations, both  land  and  maritime,  for  which  the  Council 
of  Administration  may  make  provision ;  and  it  shall  be  . 
its  duty  to  examine  and  render  annually  the  accounts  of 
said  services  and  to  execute  all  the  resolutions  of  the 
Council  concerning  the  Bureau. 

Employees  to        Bssis  VII. — All  the  employees  of  the  Civil  and  Economic 

Be  Natives 

or  Residents  of  Administration  of  the  Island  of  Cuba,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  General  Government,  the  Chief  of 
the  Treasury,  the  Comptroller,  the  Chiefs  of  the  Bureaus 
of  Local  Administration  and  of  Posts  and  Telegraphs,  and 
the  Civil  Governors  of  the  six  Provinces,  shall  be  appointed, 
as  vacancies  occur,  by  the  Governor  General  of  the  Island 
of  Cuba,  in  conformity  with  existing  laws  or  with  such  as 
may  be  hereafter  enacted,  from  among  the  natives  of  said 
Island  or  from  among  others  residing  or  having  resided 
there  during  two  consecutive  years. 

The  Governor  General  shall  submit  to  the  Council  of 
Administration,  for  its  cognizance,  evidence  of  the  legal 
qualifications  of  all  appointees. 
'^  In  the  appointment  of  all  functionaries  belonging  to  the 

—  70  — 


civil  service  professions*  and  to  the  postal  and  telegraph 
service,  the  legal  dispositions  and  rules  and  regulations 
relating  thereto  shall  be  complied  with. 

The  employees  of  the  oiiice  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
General  Government  and  of  the  offices  of  the  Provincial 
Governors  shall  be  appointed  and  removed  by  the  Gov- 
ernor General  at  his  discretion.  The  employees  of  the 
Bureau  of  Local  Administration,  of  the  Treasury  and  of 
the  Administration  of  Customs  (except  in  case  a  corps  of 
experts  be  organized)  and  of  the  office  of  the  Comptroller, 
shall  be  appointed  by  the  Governor  General  upon  the 
nomination  of  the  respective  chiefs  of  the  above  men- 
tioned branches  of  the  service.  They  may  be  removed  by 
the  Governor  General  upon  the  proposition  of  said  chiefs, 
or  directly  by  the  former  whenever  he  shall  deem  it 
necessary. 

The  Governor  General  may  appoint  Supervisors  of 
Public  Education;  two  each  for  the  Provinces  of  Havana, 
Santa  Clara  and  Santiago  de  Cuba,  and  one  each  for  the 
Provinces  of  Pinar  del  Rio,  Matanzas  and  Puerto  Principe. 

The  Governor  General  may  also  appoint,  upon  the  nomi- 
nation of  the  Provincial  Governors,  Deputies  representing 
the  latter  authorities  in  the  municipal  districts.  Said 
Deputies  shall  have  gubernatorial  authority  in  their 
respective  localities   and  shall  have  control   of  the  police 


Civil  Service 
Provisions. 


Supervisors  of 

Public 

Education. 


Deputies  to 

Represent 

Civil 

Governors  in 

Towns. 


*  Various  branches  of  the  Government  service  in  Spain  constitute 
what  are  termed  state  or  civil  service  professions.  Admission  thereto 
can  only  be  obtained  through  a  special  course  of  studies  for  each,  and 
after  a  rigid  competitive  examination  for  such  vacancies  in  the  lowest 
rank  as  from  time  to  time  are  to  be  filled.  Once  admitted,  members 
of  said  professions  cannot  be  removed  from  office,  except  after  trial 
for  cause,  though  they  may  be  assigned  to  different  posts  pertaining 
to  their  respective  ranks;  and  their  advancement  is  regulated  by  a 
system  which,  while  securing  to  all  equal  justice  in  promotion  by 
seniority,  still  offers  to  all  an  incentive  to  zeal  and  efficiency.  See 
note  on  foot  of  page  58.  At  a  certain  age.  and  after  a  given  number 
of  years'  service,  members  of  civil  service  professions  may  retire  with 
a  pension,  proportionate  to  their  rank  on  retirement.  —  Translator's 
Note, 


71 


force.  In  no  case  shall  they  interfere  with  the  Mayors  or 
Boards  of  Aldermen  in  the  exercise  of  their  powers. 

The  Governor  General,  whenever  he  shall  deem  it  advis- 
able, and  acting  upon  the  recommendation  of  the  Pro- 
vincial Governors,  may  in  the  same  manner  deputize  the 
Mayor  of  any  city  or  town. 

Administra-         BasIs  VIII. — Any  vacaucics  which  may  hereafter  occur  in 

tion  of  Justice. 

any  of  the  offices  under  the  Administration  of  Justice*  and 
the  appointment  to  which  may,  according  to  turn,  be  dis- 
cretionary,** shall  be  filled  by  the  Minister  for  the  Colo- 
nies, either  from  natives  of  the  Island  of  Cuba  or  from 
those  who  reside  or  may  have  resided  there.  Applications 
for  appointment,  accompanied  by  the  records  of  the 
respective  applicants,  shall  be  filed  with  the  Presidents 
of  the  Supreme  Courts  of  the  various  districts,  and  shall 
be  forwarded  to  the  Department  through  the  Governor 
General. 
nunicipai  r^Yie  Municipal  Judge  of  each  judicial  district  shall  be 

appointed  by  the  Governor  General,  who  shall  select  for 
that  office  one  of  three  persons  to  be  nominated  by  the 
Aldermen  of  the  respective  municipalities  and  by  the 
voters  entitled  to  vote  for  the  electors  of  Senators,  regard 
being  had  to  the  provisions  of  the  law  relative  to  the  ap- 
pointment of  electors. 

In  municipalities  where  two  or  more  Judges  are  to  be 
appointed  separate  ballots  shall  becast  for  each  set  of 
nominees  in  the  manner  above  provided. 

The  Municipal  Judges  who  may  be  elected  must  possess 
the  qualifications  prescribed  by  the  existing  laws  in  the 
Island  of  Cuba. 

Council  to         Basis  IX. — The  Council  of  Administration  shall  respect 

Respect 

Pending  Con-    pending  contracts  throughout  the  various  branches  of  the 

tracts. 

*  This  comprises  Judges  and  Prosecuting  Attorneys. —  T.  N. 
**  See  note  foot  of  page  71. 

—  72  — 


■Government  service  and  of  the  Treasury  of  the  Island, 
and  iipon  their  expiration  may  renew  them  or  not  at  its 
discretion. 

The  Council  of  Administration  is  hereby  empowered  to        Council 

Empowered  to 

apply  to  the  Island  of  Cuba  the  Law  regulating  the  opera-    contract  for 
tions  of  the  Treasury  which  is  now  in  force  in  the    Penin-      "  -Taxes.  ** 
sula,  and  to  enter  into  an  agreement  for  that  purpose  with 
the  Spanish  Bank  of  the  Island  of  Cuba. 

The  Council  is  further  empowered  to  intrust  the  above 
mentioned  Bank  with  the  collection  of  revenues,  or  to  con- 
tract with  it  with  reference  thereto,  subject  always  to  the 
approval  of  the  Minister  for  the  Colonies. 

Basis  X. — A  special  Decree,  which   shall   be   reported    Preservation 

^  .   .  of  the 

to  the  Cortes,  shall  contain  such  dispositions   as  may  be    pubUc  Peace. 

deemed  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  public  peace 
and  for  the  suppression  of  any  separatist  movement  which 
by  any  means  whatever  may  be  again  set  on  foot. 


Article  2. 


The  Government  shall  embody  in  a  single  instrument    Previous  and 

Present 

the  foregoing  provisions  and  the  provisions  of  the  reform  Reform  neas- 
law  of  March  15,  1895,  so  as  to  harmonize   the  two;  and      ""Tf*"^* 

'  '  '  Adjusted. 

shall  in  due  time  report  the  same  to  the  Cortes. 

These  united  provisions  shall  be  supplemented  by  rules 
and  regulations  to  be  subsequently  formulated,  which, 
however,  shall  in  no  manner  change  the  intent  or  mean- 
ing thereof,  and  whose  sole  purpose  shall  be  to  adjust 
the  said  provisions  to  other  legislation  now  in  force, 
as  provided  in  the  before  mentioned  law  of  March  15, 
1895. 

Upon  the  issuing  of  an  order  putting  into  effect  in  Cuba  These  Disposi- 

1  ••  C11  r     •\  r  ■<  -11  tions  to 

the  provisions  of  the  law  of  March  15,  1895,  and  the  pro-  Have  the  Force 
visions  of  this  Royal  Decree,  said  provisions  shall,  so  far        "  ^^^' 

—  73  — 


as  may  be  possible,  have  all  the  force  of  law,  without  preju- 
dice to  the  rules  and  regulations  subsequently  to  be  made. 

Article  3, 

Reforms  The  provisions  of  the  present  Decree,  as  an  extension  in 

Porto  Rico,  scope  of  the  law  of  March  15,  1895,  shall  be  applied  to  the 
Island  of  Porto  Rico  wherever  compatible  with  the  differ- 
ent conditions  prevailing  in  said  Island  and  with  the  insti- 
tutions already  established  there. 

The  rules  and  regulations  already  issued  for  Porto  Rico 
shall  be  amended  so  far  as  may  be  necessary  to  bring  them 
into  accord  with  those  which  shall  be  issued  for  the  Island 
of  Cuba. 

Article  4. 

When  the         The  date  upon  which  the  provisions  of  the  reform  law 

Reforms  Shall       /.,,.  ,,,    ,  .  -,.,.    ^ 

Be  Put  Into  of  March  15,  1895,  shall  be  put  mto  effect  m  Cuba,  and 
upon  which  the  provisions  of  this  supplementary  Decree 
shall  be  applied  to  both  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  shall  be 
determined  by  the  Government  as  soon  as  the  condition 
of  the  war  in  Cuba  shall  permit. 

The  Prime  Minister, 
Antonio  Canovas  del  Castillo. 

Madrid,  February  4,  1897. 


Effect. 


The  Reform         The  dispositions  of  the  foregoing  Royal  Decree  being 

Law  of  March     _.  ,,  t.„.  .  ., 

15,  1895,  directed  to  the  modification  and  extension  m  scope  of  the 
*t°o^n  Connie?  Reform  Law  of  March  15,  1895,  a  proper  understanding  of 
tion  with  the    ^hc  formcT  requires  that  the  latter  be  referred  to,  and  for 

Present  Heas- 

ure.  this  purpose  the  text   in  English  of   that  law  is  hereunto 

appended.     See  page  87. 


—  74  — 


COMMENTARY. 


I 


N  perusing  the  official  text  of  the  ' '  Expository  Pre-  Points  to  Be 

.  .  Borne  in  Mind 

amble  "  and  "  Royal  Decree     embodying  the  reform  in  Reading  the 
measures  recently  adopted  by  Spain  for  the  govern-       ^Jj^reT.* 


ment  of  the  Island  of  Cuba,  which  is  herein  rendered  in  as 
faithful  an  English  version  as  the  difference  in  construction 
of  the  two  languages  would  permit  of,  the  reader  will  un- 
doubtedly have  a  better  comprehension  of  those  measures 
and  a  more  adequate  appreciation  of  their  scope  if  he 
will  bear  in  mind :  First — The  political  complexion  of  the 
party  whose  leader,  as  Premier  of  the  Kingdom,  has  pre- 
pared and  obtained  the  sanction  of  the  Crown  for  such  a 
radical  measure  of  Spanish  colonial  policy.  Second — The 
purpose  which  has  actuated  Her  Majesty's  Government  in 
adopting  such  a  course,  and  its  intentions  as  to  the  devel- 
opment and  application  of  the  plan  of  reforms.  Third — 
The  view  taken  in  regard  to  this  plan  by  the  leaders  of 
other  Spanish  political  parties.  Fourth — The  spirit  in 
which  its  announcement  has  been  received  in  Cuba  by 
prominent  natives  and  influential  Peninsular-born  resi- 
dents. Fifth — The  trend  of  public  opinion  in  foreign 
countries  on  the  reforms. 

As  an  aid,  therefore,  to  those  not  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  subject,  the  writer  here  presents,  supplemented 
by  a  few  remarks  of  his  own,  various  statements  and  ex- 
pressions of  opinion  covering  the  points  above  enumerated, 
which  he  has  culled,  extracted  and  rendered  into  English, 
where  necessary,  from  such  matter  as  he  has  at  hand. 


As  to  the  first  point,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  while 
the  Conservative  party,  under  the  leadership  of  the  present 


—  75  — 


Conservative    eral   party 

Party  Fore- 
stalls the 
Liberals  in 
Granting  Re- 
forms. 


Prime  Minister,  Seiior  Canovas  del  Castillo,  has  always, 
true  to  its  name  and  creed,  opposed  radical  legislation  and 
the  adoption  of  political  measures  for  which  it  did  not 
consider  the  time  ripe  nor  the  people  of  vSpain  prepared, 
it  has  almost  invariably,  when  called  into  power,  respected 
or  "  conserved  "  all  successive  political  rights  enacted  into 
the  Laws  of  the  Realm  through  the  initiative  of  the  Lib- 
And  in  many  instances,  as  in  the  present 
Cuban  question,  the  Conservatives  have  forestalled  the 
more  advanced  party  in  the  granting  of  reforms,  going 
even  beyond  the  limits  predetermined  by  the  latter' s 
declarations  of  principles  as  to  certain  issues. 

Thus,  not  only  did  the  Conservative  party,  then  in  the 
opposition,  heartily  support  and  solidly  vote  in  favor  of 
the  Abarzuza  Cuban  Reform  bill,  draughted  and  submitted 
to  the  Cortes  by  the  Liberal  Cabinet  of  Premier  Sagasta 
in  1895,  but  now,  while  under  the  tremendous  responsibili- 
ties inherent  to  power  in  such  critical  circumstances  as 
Spain  is  going  through,  Seiior  Canovas  boldly  steps  far 
beyond  the  boundaries  pointed  out  by  the  promises  of 
other  Spanish  statesmen  or  even  by  the  demands  of  the 
several  Cuban  legal  political  parties,  the  Autonomist 
party  alone  excepted. 


Intentions 

of  the 

Oovernment. 


In  regard  to  the  second  point,  Seiior  Canovas  del  Cas- 
tillo made  the  following  statement  on  the  day  in  which 
the  Royal  Decree  was  published  in  the  Gaceta  de  Madrid 
(official  organ  of  record).  These  utterances  of  the  emi- 
nent Spanish  statesman  confirm  and  throw  additional 
light  on  that  noble  and  remarkable  official  writing  :  the 
"  Expository  Preamble"  to  the  Royal  Decree. 

To  a  press  representative  Seiior  Canovas  said  : 


I  have  devoted  much  study  and  thought  to  the  preparation 
of  the  plan  of  reforms,   and  being  inspired   by   the  utmost 


—  76 


sincerity  I  have  endeavored  to  imbue  the  measure  with  the 
broadest  spirit. 

It  has  been  my  aim  to  make  of  the  reforms  a  national 
undertaking ;  I  have  worked  on  them,  therefore,  on  behalf  of 
my  country  and  for  my  country. 

My  idea,  my  determination,  is  to  put  them  into  effect 
according  to  the  most  liberal  interpretation  and  with  abso- 
lute sincerity. 

With  entire  good  faith  I  am  resolutely  going  toward  the 
establishment  of  autonomy  in  Cuba.     On  this  line  no  radical-.^J^X^Xvi^ 

I  ha-A"*' / 


Sr.  Canovas 

del  Castillo's 

Statement. 


ism  can  check  me.     What  I  have  been  most  careful  of 
to  leave  any  loophole  for  independence.     And  in  this 


fulfilled  my  duty. 


It  is  not  necessary  to  await  the  complete  pacification  of  the   Application  of 


Island  of  Cubk  in  order  to  put  the   reforms  into  practical 
operation. 

As  soon  the  rebellion  is  reduced  to  the  Oriental  Depart- 
ment all  the  pacified  provinces  shall  immediately  enter  upon 
the  enjoyment  of  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  new 
measures.  Without  further  delay  the  Boards  of  Aldermen 
and  the  Provincial  Assemblies  shall  be  elected  in  those  prov- 
inces, and  they  shall  have  entire  liberty  of  action  without 
any  Government  intervention.  And  thus  the  entire  plan  of 
reforms  shall  be  rapidly  developed,  with  a  view  of  having  it 
in  practical  operation  in  as  short  a  period  as  possible. 

In  connection  with  this  same  point,  t.  e. ,  the  intentions 
of  the  Spanish  Government  as  to  the  development  and 
application  of  its  plan  of  reforms,  it  will  be  proper  to 
transcribe  here  the  statements  made  by  the  Spanish 
Minister  in  Washington,  Seiior  Dupuy  de  Lome,  to  a 
representative  of  The  United  Associated  Presses  on  the 
7th  of  last  February. 

A  close  study  of  the  course  of  the  Cuban  question  could 
not  but  convey  to  the  least  observing  mind  the  conviction 
that  this  most  efficient  and  able  diplomat  enjoys  to  more 
than  an  ordinary  degree  the  confidence  of  his  Government. 
It  is  but  fair  to  assume,  therefore,  especially  if  it  be  re- 
membered how  discreet  and  cautious  have  been  all  Seiior 
Dupuy  de  Lome's  utterances,  that  in  the  following  state- 


the  Plan  of 
Reforms. 


3r,  Dupuy  de 

Lome's 
Statement. 


77  — 


ment  the  Spanish  representative  reflects  the  purpose  of 
his  Government ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  he  gives,  unoffi- 
cially, expression  to  certain  knowledge,  officially  acquired, 
bearing  on  the  question  under  review. 

His  statement,  in  substance,  as  published  is  as  follows : 

Electoral  The  electoral   reforms  were    not  referred  to  at  length   in 

Reforms.  ^^^Q  decree  of  the  Ministry,  for  the  reasons  stated  in  the  pre- 
amble of  Senor  Canovas,  that  they  will  require  the  action  of 
the  Cortes.  I  am  informed,  however,  that  the  Government 
will  not  oppose  the  extension  of  the  basis  of  the  suffrage,  but 
they  desire  to  do  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  prevent  undue 
influence  being  acquired  by  the  illiterate  portion  of  the 
population. 

The  present  law  requires  the  payment  of  taxes  amounting 
in  the  aggregate  to  $5,  except  where  the  privilege  of  voting 
is  extended  to  the  graduates  of  the  universities  and  other- 
members  of  the  learned  professions.  Any  educational  quali- 
fication which  may  be  suggested  by  the  Cubans,  and  which 
seems  reasonable  and  proper,  will  undoubtedly  be  adopted 
by  the  Cortes.     The  subject  must  be  regulated  by  that  body. 

It  is   the  purpose   of  the  Government  to  show  the  greatest 
generosity  toward  the  insurgents  who  lay  down  their  arms. 
The  reforms  cannot  well  be  put  into  full  effect  until  the  sover- 
eignty of  Spain  is  acknowledged.     The  Government  will  not 
relax    its  military  activity  in  any  degree  if  the  insurgents 
show  a  disposition  to  continue  the  contest  and  fail  to  appre- 
ciate the  great  concessions  made  by  the  home  Government. 
Spain's  Oen-        Spain  has  gone  to  the  utmost   limit  in  her  generosity  to 
^fv^'ti  *''*''*  V*  the  Cuban  people,  and  has  established  a  system  by  which  the 
Cuba.         Island  will  hereafter  be  governed  in  Cuba  by  residents  of  the 
Island,  instead  of  being  governed  from  Madrid.     The  right 
to  hold  office  is  given  to  Spaniards  who  have  lived  two  years 
in    Cuba,    because    they    have   become    in   a   large    degree 
identified  with  the  interests  of  the  Island. 

In  this  respect  the  proposed  policy  is  not  unlike  that  which 
has  been  pursued  by  the  United  States,  where  members  of 
both  political  parties  have  delighted  to  honor  citizens  born  out- 
side of  the  country.  Conspicuous  examples  are  found  in  the 
cases  of  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Iowa,  who  is  to  be  a  member  of  the  Cab- 
inet of  your  next  President,  and  who  was.  I  believe,  born  in 
Scotland,  and  of  Carl  Schurz,  who  was  born  in  Germany,  but 
was  Secretary  of  the  Interior  under  the  administration  of 
President  Hayes. 

The  tariff  features  of  the  new  Decree  are  very  comprehen- 


sive  in  their  scope,  and  mean  a  great  deal  for  the  United 
States  as  well  as  for  Cuba.  The  duties  levied  will  be  equal 
against  all  countries  except  Spain ;  and  American  manufac- 
turers and  exporters,  in  view  of  their  familiarity  with 
Cuban  trade  and  their  nearness  to  the  Island,  are  likely  to 
appreciate  the  importance  of  these  concessions. 

The  situation  will  be  much  more  favorable  to  American 
trade  than  under  the  reciprocity  treaty  of  1890.  There  were 
in  that  treaty  two  schedules  for  American  goods,  one  of  25 
per  cent,  and  another  of  50  per  cent.,  but  Spain  had  the  right 
to  provide  for  the  entry  of  her  products  free  of  duty,  thus 
giving  her  a  marked  advantage  over  the  United  States.  The 
Spanish  West  Indies  are  the  best  consumers  of  United  States 
products  that  you  have  on  this  continent.  It  will  be  neces- 
sary for  the  home  Government  to  consult  the  Cubans  before 
a  reciprocity  treaty  is  concluded.  The  new  reforms  dis- 
tinctly provide  that  such  treaties  may  be  suggested  by  the 
new  Council  of  Administration. 

The  Council  of  Administration  shall  not  only  contain 
twenty-one  members  elected  by  the  qualified  voters  of  Cuba, 
but  will  contain  Cubans  among  the  other  members,  if  they 
possess  the  qualifications  to  attain  the  position  which  entitles 
them  to  seats.  The  members  of  the  Council  of  Administra- 
tion, who  shall  sit  by  virtue  of  their  office  as  Presidents  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  the  Planters'  Association  and 
other  bodies,  may  just  as  well  be  Cubans  as  persons  born  in 
Spain,  if  they  show  the  qualities  which  naturally  advance 
them  to  those  places.  The  places  are  entirely  open  to  native 
Cubans  as  well  as  Spaniards. 

The  Liberal  party,  upon  returning  to  power,  could  or 
would  never  attempt  to  take  a  step  backward  on  such  a 
vital  national  issue,  either  by  reactionary  legislation  or  by 
a  narrow  interpretation  of  the  measures  enacted  by  the 
Conservatives. 

That  is  not  only  self-evident,  but  it  is  assured  beyond 
peradventure  by  the  fact  that  the  leaders  of  the  Liberal 
party  have  approved  of  the  new  plan  of  reforms.  In 
effect,  Seiior  Maura,  who  in  colonial  matters  can  speak 
with  best  authority  on  behalf  of  said  party,  he  being  the 
author  of  the  Reform  bill  of  1893,  has  said: 

The  Royal  Decree  issued  by  the  Prime  Minister  unfolds 
with  vigorous  frankness  a   system  which   differs  much  more 


The   Tariff 
Features. 


More    Favora- 
ble  to   the 
United    States 
than  the 
Reciprocity 
Treaty. 


The  Liberal 

Party  Indorses 

the  Plan  of 

Reforms. 


The  Republi- 
cans  Also. 


radically  from  that  now  established  in  the  West  Indies  than 
did  the  Law  of  1895  *  or  the  Bill  of  1893.**  It  adopts  principles 
and  lays  down  bases  which  should  satisfy  all  aspirations, 
that  are  not  insatiable,  of  the  liberal  political  parties  in 
Cuba.  I  spurn  as  absurd  any  insinuation  to  the  effect  that 
the  scope  of  the  reforms  may  be  impaired  by  the  rules  and 
regulations  and  other  means  for  their  application,  because 
no  statesman  should  be  insulted  by  imputing  such  bad  faith 
to  him,  nor  would  any  fail  to  perceive  the  dangers  of  sa 
acting. 

The  present  reform  measures  also  meet  the  favor  of  the 
Spanish  Republicans,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  following 
words  from  their  leader,  the  great  orator,  Don  Emilio 
Castelar : 


I,  as  a  writer,  can  only  applaud  the  tendencies  of  the 
reform  decrees.  I  approve  them  with  all  my  heart,  and  sup- 
port them  with  all  my  power.  I  oppose  any  design  of 
reducing  them,  whatever  be  its  origin. 

With  the  projects  of  Maura,  Abarzuza  and  Canovas,  all 
defended  by  me,  we  have  dealt  justice  to  Cuba,  establishing 
her  self-government  and  developing  her  commercial  rela- 
tions. 

From  them  good,  nothing  but  good,  can  come.  Therefore 
I  am  satisfied,  and  thus  you  have  my  opinion. 

As  to  how  the  reforms  will  be  accepted  by  the  political 

parties  in  Cuba,  by  influential  organizations  of  the  Island 

and  by  Cuban  public  opinion  in  general,    the   following 

excerpts   from  statements  thereon  may  give  a  fair  idea. 

The  Cuban     Those  from  the  leaders  of  the  Autonomist  party,  who  are 

Autonomists 

Approve  of  the  also  Members  of  the  Cortes,  are  of  the  utmost  importance, 
*  *'Tre8.  *"*"  because  the  principles  and  ideals  of  this  party  undoubtedly 
represent   the  aspirations  of  the  majority  of  native  resi- 
dents of  the  Island,  and  because  it  is  more  than  likely 


*  In  force  in  Porto  Rico,  but  not  yet  applied  to  Cuba  on  account  of 
the  insurrection. 

**  Of  which  Senor  Maura,  then  Minister  for  the  Colonies,  was 
author,  but  which  did  not  become  law  on  account  of  his  leaving  the 
portfolio. 

—  80  — 


that  to  its  banners  shall  rally  the  better  class  of  those  who 
have  participated  in  the  present  insurrection,  as  soon  as 
the  latter  is  finally  put  down. 

Here  are  the  extracts  above  referred  to: 

From  Senor  Rafael  Montoro,  a  native  of  Cuba,  one  of    statement  of 

Sr.  Montoro. 

the  leaders  of  the  Autonomist  party  and  Member  of  the 
Cortes  for  the  Island: 


It  is  difficult  to  make  quite  clear  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
mind  what  will  be  the  political  relations  in  Cuba  to  the 
mother  country  in  the  new  era  which  is  dawning.  It  is  im- 
possible to  reason  by  analogy  and  contrast  with  the  British 
colonies,  because,  to  cite  merely  one  cause  of  essential  differ- 
ence, Spain  has  a  written  Constitution  which  is  the  palladium 
and  supreme  guarantee  of  our  liberties,  and  Great  Britain  is 
ruled  by  a  more  flexible  and  an  unwritten  Constitution. 

Our  Constitution  establishes  a  certain  identity  of  civil  and 
political  rights  between  all  subjects  of  the  Crown,  and  it  pro- 
vides that  we  Cubans  must  have  our  representatives  in  the 
Cortes,  as  do  all  other  provinces  of  the  kingdom. 

Our  suffrage  for  the  election  of  Deputies  to  the  Cortes  is 
even  now,  in  my  opinion,  sufficiently  ample,  but  it  will  be  even 
more  extensive  under  the  new  regime,  so  that  the  voice  of 
Cuba  may  be  heard  on  all  questions  of  finance  and  of  foreign 
affairs  which  interest  and  affect  alike  all  portions  of  the 
kingdom. 

In  connection  and  in  harmony  with  the  Local  Assembly  of 
Cuba  there  is  no  room  for  doubting  that  the  national  or  im- 
perial Cortes  will  grant  to  us  the  fullest  powers  of  self- 
administration  and  self-government  that  are  possible  under 
our  Constitution  and  compatible  with  the  unity  of  the 
Kingdom. 

I  think  that  the  Spanish  Government  will  have  fully  satis- 
fied every  reasonable  and  practical  demand  of  the  Cuban 
people.  I  expect  that  then  the  respectable  but  misguided 
elements  of  the  insurrection  will  withdraw  from  the  field, 
and  that  there  will  remain  under  arms  only  lawless  adven- 
turers and  irreconcilable  enemies  of  law  and  order. 

The  question  of  the  adjustment  of  the  indebtedness  ensuing 
out  of  the  war  is,  I  admit,  a  difficult  one,  perhaps  the  most 
difficult  one  which  the  situation  presents,  but  it  is  not  an 
insuperable  obstacle  to  peace,  as  some  especially  ill-informed 
publicists  in  foreign  countries  represent  it  to  be. 

I  believe  the  subject  can  be  reasonably  and  equitably  set- 


A  New  Era  Is 
Dawning. 


Suffrage  in 
Cuba  is  Suf- 
ficiently 
Ample. 


Tlie  Reasona- 
bie  Demands  of 

tlie  Cubans 
Fully  Satisfied. 


Adjustment  of 
the  War   Debt 
Not  an  Insur- 
mountable 
Obstacle. 


—  81  — 


The  New  Meas- 
ure Contains 
All  Essential 
Elements  of 
Self-Qovern- 
ment. 


Sr.  Labra's 
Statement. 


Autonomy  the 

Best  Guar- 
antor of  the 
Nation's   In- 
tegrity. 


Sr.  Fernandez 
de  Castro's 
Statement. 


tied  by  an    arrangement   between    the    Spanish    and   Cuban 
treasuries. 

Also  from  Senor  Montoro,  on  another  occasion,  con- 
jointly with  Seiior  Jos^  A.  del  Cueto,  likewise  a  promi- 
nent member  of  the  Autonomist  party : 

In  our  opinion  the  reform  measure  is  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance, since  the  institutions  based  thereon  are  remarkably 
liberal,  and  the  changes  introduced  in  the  present  system 
are  very  radical.  If  understood  and  loyally  appreciated 
they  reveal  the  noble  fulfillment  of  the  promises  contained 
in  the  Crown  vSpeech  and  explained  in  the  memorable  sum- 
ming up  of  the  debate  in  the  Cortes  on  the  15th  of  July  last 
by  Senor  Canovas. 

We  believe  that  the  above  measure  contains  all  the  essen- 
tial elements  of  self-government,  and  that  the  amendments 
and  extensions  in  scope  that  it  may  require  in  order  to  reach 
all  the  development  possible  withm  the  national  Constitution 
may  well  be  left  to  the  action  of  time,  of  public  opinion  and 
of  local  initiative,  when,  peace  being  restored,  it  will  become 
possible  for  them  to  manifest  themselves  authoritatively. 
The  Expository  Preamble  of  the  Royal  Decree  opens  reason- 
able horizons  to  every  loyal  aspiration  in  that  direction. 

The  effects  of  the  reform  measure  upon  the  public  spirit 
cannot  but  be  very  favorable  at  the  present  moment,  and 
they  shall  be  more  so  according  as  the  intentions  of  the 
Government  become  known. 

From  Seiior  Labra,  a  distinguished  Cuban  jurist, 
Autonomist  Member  of  the  Cortes  for  the  Island : 

Senor  Canovas'  plan  of  reforms  implies  a  laudable  change 
in  the  course  of  our  colonial  policy.  It  is  necessary  that  we 
work  on  that  basis.  We  may  now  expect  from  the  Liberal 
Peninsular  party  a  new  determination  and  a  more  decided 
spirit  in  its  attitude  and  in  its  course,  since  the  step  in  advance 
taken  by  the  Conservative  party  is  really  an  exceptional  one. 

As  for  me  personally,  I  may  say  that  I  have  never  been 
pessimistic  in  politics,  and  that  I  have  to-day  additional 
reasons  for  reaffirming  what  I  have  always  held,  that  colonial 
autonomy  is  the  best  guarantor  of  the  honor,  the  strength 
and  the  integrity  of  the  nation. 

From  Senor  Rafael  Fernandez  de  Castro,  a  Cuban 
Autonomist,  ex-Member  of  the  Cortes  for  the  Island  : 

The  reforms  represent  a  great  progressive  stride  in  Span- 
ish   colonial    policy.      They   are   more    liberal    than   those 


82  — 


embodied  in  the  Reform  Law  of  March  15,  1895,  and  of  course 
more  of  a  fundamental  nature  than  those  prepared  in  his 
bill  by  Mr.  Maura  in  1893.  They  are  equivalent  to  a  grand 
and  decisive  entry  into  a  regime  that  the  wise  nature  of 
things  has  been  demanding  here  for  some  time;  that  of 
Autonomy. 

From    Senor  Arturo   Amblard  Member  of  the   Cortes 
for  the  Island  of  Cuba: 


A  Great  Pro- 
gressive 
Stride. 


Sr.    Amblard's 
Statement. 


I  believe  that  the  reforms  will  completely  satisfy  the  long 
felt  wishes  of  the  people  of  Cuba,  and  that  although  they 
contain  details  of  secondary  importance  that  in  practice  will 
be  corrected,  they  may  be  the  means  of  bringing  together 
many  men  hitherto  of  clashing  opmions,  and  of  gaining  sup- 
porters to  the  national  cause. 

From  Seiior  Rabell,  leader  of  the  Cuban  Reformist 
party,  in  a  cable  dispatch  to  Premier  Canovas  : 

The  executive  committee  of  Reformist  party,  upon 
learning  of  reform  measures,  has  resolved  to  compliment 
Your  Excellency  for  the  broad  spirit  that  they  reveal.  By 
such  consistent  action  Your  Excellency  will  satisfy  the 
legitimate  aspirations  of  the  people  of  this  Island,  who  confi- 
dently expect  the  development  of  the  plan  of  reforms,  with 
the  sincere  co-operation  of  all  the  loyal  elements  of  Cuba, 
in  order  to  bring  about  peace,  which  everyone  desires. 

The  general  applause  with  which  the  reform  measures 
have  been  received  is  the  best  evidence  of  their  merit. 


Sr.  Rabelt'5 
Congratula- 
tions. 


From  Marquis  of  Apezteguia,  a  native  of  Cuba  and 
leader  of  the  Union  Constitucional  party  (this,  being  the 
"Tory"  or  Conservative  party  of  the  Island,  has  always 
opposed  reform  measures  for  Cuba  in  the  direction  of  self- 
government)  : 

The  Union  Constitucional  party  cannot  oppose  the  work 
of  the  Government.  I  have  come  to  the  Peninsula  for  the 
purpose  of  avoiding  friction  and  in  the  interest  of  harmony. 
As  to  the  effects  of  the  reforms  in  Cuba,  I  believe  that  they 
will  have  none  directly  upon  the  insurgents  in  arms.  But 
the  new  measures  will  appeal  to  the  reason  of  the  pacific 
native  elements  and  to  foreigners  in  general,  and  this  moral 


statement  of 

tlie  Cuban 

Conservative 

Leader. 


The  Cuban 
Conservative 
Party  Will  Not 

Oppose  the 
Reforms. 


—  83  — 


Voice  of  the 
Havana  Cham- 
ber of  Com- 
merce. 


The  Produce 

Exchange  in 

Favor  of  the 

Reforms. 


Favorable 

Opinion  of  the 

Importers' 

League. 


force  on  our  side  will  undoubtedly  weaken  the  direct  or  in- 
direct support  that  the  insurrection  has  received  in  some 
countries. 


From  Sefior  Rosendo  Fernandez,  President  pro  tem. 
the  Havana  Chamber  of  Commerce : 


of 


I  am  positive  that  this  Chamber  of  Commerce  will  nobly 
aid  the  Government  in  every  measure  tending  to  the  attain- 
ment of  peace  and  to  the  fostering  of  the  moral  and  material 
interests  of  the  Island  on  the  indisputable  basis  of  Spain's 
sovereignty. 

From  Senor  Marcelino  Gonzales,  President  of  the  Havana 

Produce  Exchange: 

The  reforms  having  been  studied  out  and  prepared  by  so 
eminent  a  statesman  as  Seiior  Canovas  del  Castillo,  and  em- 
bodying, as  the  press  reports  show,  such  liberal  measures  of 
self-government,  they  cannot  but  be  beneficial  to  commerce 
in  general,  which  shall  have  more  within  reach  the  means  of 
overcoming  the  obstacles  it  may  encounter  in  the  develop- 
ment of  its  foreign  trade. 

From  Senor  Laureano  Rodriguez,  President  of  the  Cuban 

Importers'  League: 

It  is  my  opinion  that  the  reforms,  after  a  revision  of  the 
electoral  census  (enrolment),  when  put  into  operation  in  a 
spirit  of  good  faith,  will  satisfy  the  aspirations  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  this  Island. 


The  Cuban 
Press. 


The  following  comments  are  culled  from  Cuban  and 
foreign  newspapers: 

From  El  Pats,  organ  of  the  Autonomist  party: 

The  reforms  should  be  received  with  satisfaction  and 
applause,  and  they  should  meet  with  our  sincere  co-opera- 
tion, for  they  go  much  further  in  the  direction  of  self-govern- 
ment than  the  plans  of  either  Seiior  Abarzuza  or  Senor 
Maura. 

From  the  Diario  de  la  Marina,  organ  of  the  Reformist 
party : 

Thanks  to  the  reforms  we  can  now  confidently  say  that  the 
misfortunes  of  the  Island  of  Cuba  are  soon  to  end. 


84 


lUHIVBRSISTJ 


From  La  Luc  ha,  Republican  organ :    '"''''^^isa::^;!^!-^-'  * 

The  time  has  come  for  every  honest  man  who  has  the  wel- 
fare of  Cuba  at  heart  to  exert  all  his  influence  and  all  his 
endeavors  toward  convincing  those  who  are  at  present  in 
arms  that  there  exists  no  longer  the  reasons  or  the  pretexts 
with  which  they  pretended  to  justify  their  rebellion. 

From  La  Union  Constitucional,  organ  of  the  party  of 
that  name  (Conservative)  : 

The  Union  Constitucional  party  will  not  set  any  obsta- 
cles in  the  way  of  the  solutions  which  the  home  Govern- 
ment has  prepared  to  the  difficulties  that  beset  out  common 
country. 

From  El  Diario  del  Ejercito,  organ  of  the  army : 

Senor  Canovas  has  once  more  shown  the  deep  interest  he 
takes  in  Cuban  affairs  by  granting  the  Island  such  reforms  as 
the  spirit  of  the  times  and  the  public  requirements  demanded. 


From  Z<;'  Gaulois,  of  Paris: 

As  a  whole  the  reforms  planned  by  the  Madrid  Govern-  The  Foreign 
ment  are  of  a  nature  calculated  to  satisfy  the  aspirations  of  **'**'- 
Cubans.  If  the  latter  should  not  consider  themselves  satis- 
fied they  would  forfeit  the  sympathy  of  European  nations, 
who  understand  perfectly  that  the  Spanish  Government  in 
granting  to  Cuba  such  liberal  laws  has  gone  in  one  bound  to 
the  limit  which  its  dignity  and  its  duty  would  allow. 

From  L' Eclair,  of  Paris: 

We  must  admit  that  in  these  circumstances  Senor  Canovas 
has  not  revealed  himself  a  Conservative  after  the  fashion  of 
Guizot,  who  remained  unmoved  even  while  he  foresaw  prog- 
ress. Senor  Canovas  resembles  rather  the  great  British  Con- 
servative Robert  Peel,  who  in  1846  did  not  hesitate  to  split 
his  party  in  order  to  grant  political  liberties  to  the  British 
people. 

From  Le  Temps,  of  Paris : 

If  Seiior  Canovas  del  Castillo  considers  it  necessary  to 
grant  to  Cuba  ample  concessions  it  is,  in  the  first  place, 
because  the  urgency  of  establishing  the  reforms  has  appeared 
perfectly  clear  to  him,  and,  in  the  second  place,  because  he  is 
perfectly  satisfied  that  he  can  put  them  into  effect  without 
prejudice  to  Spain's  honor  or  Spain's  interests. 

—  85  — 


REFORM  LAW  OF  flARCH   15,  1895. 


LAW  FOR  THE  REORGANIZATION  OF  THE  GOVERN- 
MENT AND  CIVIL  ADMINISTRATION  OF 
THE  ISLAND  OF  CUBA. 

Alfonso  XIII.,  by  the  Grace  of  God  and  the  Constitution, 
King  of  Spain,  and,  in  his  name  and  during  his  minority,  the 
Queen  Regent  of  the  Kingdom :  To  all  whom  these  presents 
shall  come,  know  ye  that  the  Cortes  have  decreed  and  we 
have  sanctioned  the  following : 

ARTICLE  I.  The  system  of  government  and  the  civil  ad- 
ministration of  the  Island  of  Cuba  shall  be  readjusted  on  the 
following  bases : 

BASIS  I. 

The  laws  of  municipalities  and  of  provinces  now  in  force  in 
the  Island  are  hereby  amended  to  the  extent  necessary  for 
the  following  ends : 

The  Council  of  Administration  shall,  upon  the  report  of  the 
Provincial  Assemblies,  decide  all  questions  relating  to  the 
formation  of  municipalities,  and  to  the  determination  of  their 
boundaries. 

The  law  of  provinces  is  hereby  amended  as  to  the  matters 
placed  by  these  bases  within  the  powers  of  the  Council  of 
Administration. 

The  Provincial  Assembly  shall  decide  all  questions  pertain- 
ing to  the  organization  of  Boards  of  Aldermen,  to  their  elec- 
tion, to  the  qualification  of  the  members  and  other  similar 
questions. 

Each  Board  of  Aldermen  shall  elect  one  of  its  members  as 
Mayor.  The  Governor  General  may  remove  a  Mayor  and 
appoint  a  new  Mayor,  but  the  new  Mayor  must  be  a  member 
of  the  Board.  In  addition  to  their  functions  as  executive 
officers  of  the  Boards  of  Aldermen,  the  Mayors  shall  be  the 
representatives  and  delegates  of  the  Governor  General. 

Whenever  the  Governor  General  shall  stay  the  resolutions 
of  a  municipal  corporation*  the  matter  shall  be  laid  before 
the  criminal  courts,  if  the  stay  be  due  to  misdemeanor  com- 


provincial 

Assemblies 

and 

riunicipalities. 


*  See  note  page  9^ 


—  87  — 


Taxation. 


mitted  by  the  corporation  in  connection  with  the  resolutions, 
or  laid  before  the  Provincial  Governor,  upon  the  report  of  the 
Provincial  Assembly,  if  the  resolutions  were  stayed  because 
they  exceeded  the  powers  of  the  Board,  or  because  they  in- 
fringed the  law. 

The  Provincial  Governors  may  stay  the  resolutions  of  the 
municipal  corporation,  and  censure,  warn,  fine  or  suspend  the 
members  of  the  corporations  when  they  exceed  the  limits  of 
their  powers. 

Previous  to  removing  Mayors  or  Aldermen,  in  the  cases 
provided  by  law,  the  Governor  General  must  give  the  Coun- 
cil of  Administration  a  hearing  upon  the  removal. 

Every  member  of  a  municipal  corporation  who  shall  have 
presented  or  voted  in  favor  of  a  resolution  injurious  to  the 
rights  of  a  citizen  shall  be  under  a  liability,  enforcible  before 
the  court  having  jurisdiction,  to  indemnify  or  make  restitu- 
tion to  the  injured  party,  the  liability  ceasing  according  to 
the  rules  of  the  Statute  of  Limitations. 
riunicipai  Each  Board  of  Aldermen  shall,  in  matters  defined  as  within 

the  exclusive  municipal  powers,  have  full  freedom  of  action, 
agreeably  with  the  observance  of  the  law,  and  with  the 
respect  due  to  the  rights  of  citizens.  In  order  that  the 
Boards  of  Aldermen  and  the  guilds*  may  fix  the  amount  of 
the  taxes  to  cover  the  expenses  of  the  municipality  and  may 
determine  their  nature  and  their  distribution,  in  accordance 
with  the  preference  of  each  municipality,  the  Boards  of 
Aldermen  and  the  guilds  shall  have  all  the  powers  necessary 
thereto,  that  is  compatible  with  the  system  of  taxation  of  the 
State. 

The  Provincial  Assemblies  may  review  the  resolutions  of 
municipal  corporations  relating  to  the  preparation  or  altera- 
tion of  their  estimates  of  revenues  and  expenditures,  and, 
while  respecting  their  discretionary  powers,  shall  see  that  no 
appropriation  which  exceeds  the  assets  be  allowed,  and  that 
arrears  of  previous  years  and  payments  ordered  by  courts 
having  jurisdiction  have  the  preference.  The  Governor 
General  and  the  Provincial  Governors  shall  in  these  matters 
have  only  the  intervention  necessary  to  insure  the  observance 
of  the  law  and  to  prevent  municipal  taxation  from  impairing 
the  sources  of  revenue  of  the  State. 

The  annual  accounts  of  each  Mayor,  inclusive  of  revenues 

*  For  purposes  of  taxation  the  various  trades  are  formed  into 
guilds.  Taxes  on  trades  are  apportioned  among  the  guilds,  whose 
officers  fix  the  tax  to  be  paid  by  each  member  according  to  the  valu- 
ation of  his  business. 

—  88  — 


and  expenditures,  ordinary  and  extraordinary,  shall  be  pub- 
lished in  the  municipality  and  audited  and  corrected  by  the 
Provincial  Assembly,  after  hearing  protests,  and  approved  by 
the  Provincial  Governor  if  they  do  not  exceed  100,000  pese- 
tas, and  by  the  Council  of  Administration  if  they  exceed  that 
sum.  The  Provincial  Assemblies  and  the  Council  of  Adminis- 
tration shall  determine  if  any  officials  have  incurred  liabili- 
ties, except  in  the  cases  that  come  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  ordinary  courts. 

Appeals  to  the  Council  of  Administration   may  be  taken 
from  the  decisions  of  the  Provincial  Assemblies. 


BASIS  II. 


Councilors 

Appointed  by 

the  Crown. 


The  Council  of  Administration  shall  be  organized  as  follows :    The  Council. 

The  Governor  General,  or  the  acting  Governor  General, 
shall  be  President  of  the  Council. 

The  Supreme  Government  shall  appoint  by  Royal  Decree 
fifteen  of  the  Councilors. 

The  Council  shall  have  a  staflf  of  secretaries,  with  the  per- 
sonnel necessary  for  the  transaction  of  its  affairs. 

The  office  of  Councilor  shall  be  honorary  and  gratuitous. 

For  appointment  as  Councilor  the  appointee  must  have 
resided  in  the  Island  during  the  four  years  previous  to  appoint- 
ment, and  must  have  one  of  the  following  qualifications : 

To  be  or  to  have  been  President  of  a  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, of  the  Economic  Society  of  Friends  of  the  Country, 
or  of  the  Sugar  Planters'  Association. 

To  be  or  to  have  been  Rector  of  the  University,  or  Dean  of 
the  Corporation  of  Lawyers  of  a  provincial   capital   for  two 

years. 

To  have  been  for  the  four  years  previous  to  appointment 
one  of  the  fifty  principal  taxpayers  of  the  Island,  paying 
taxes  on  real  estate,  on  manufactures,  on  trade,  or  on  licenses 
to  practice  a  profession. 

To  have  been  a  Senator  of  the  Kingdom  or  a  Representative 
to  the  Cortes  in  two  or  more  legislatures. 

To  have  been  two  or  more  times  President  of  a  Provincial 
Assembly  of  the  Island ;  to  have  served  for  two  or  more  terms 
of  two  years  as  member  of  the  Provincial  Executive  Com- 

—  89—   • 


mittee ;  *  or  to  have  been  a  Provincial  Assemblyman  eight 
years. 

To  have  been  for  two  or  more  terms  of  two  years  Mayor  of 
a  provincial  capital. 

To  have  been,  until  the  proclamation  of  this  act,  member 
of  the  Administrative  Council  for  two  or  more  years. 

The  Council  may,  whenever  it   shall  deem  it   expedient, 
summon  to  its  deliberations,  through  the  Governor  General, 
any  chief  of  department,  but  the  latter  shall  not  vote  with 
the  Council. 
Councilors  To  form  the  Council  fifteen  additional  Councilors  shall  be 

Elected  by  the  ejected  by  voters  having  the  qualiiications  requisite  to  vote 
for  Provincial  Assemblymen. 

The  term  of  office  shall  be  four  years.  The  elections  to  fill 
vacated  seats  shall  take  place  every  two  years,  the  Provinces 
of  Havana,  Pinar  del  Rio  and  Puerto  Principe  voting  at  one 
election,  and  the  Provinces  of  Matanzas,  Santa  Clara  and 
Santiago  de  Cuba  voting  at  another. 

The  Province  of  Havana  shall  elect  four  Councilors ;  the 
Province  of  Santiago  de  Cuba  shall  elect  three ;  and  each  of 
the  other  provinces  shall  elect  two. 

All  the  Councilors  shall  be  elected  at  the  same  time :  upon 
the  establishment  of  this  act,  and  after  a  total  removal  of  the 
Council.  Two  years  after  the  establishment  of  this  act,  or 
after  a  total  removal  of  the  Council,  the  Councilors  from  the 
first  group  of  provinces  above  named  shall  vacate  their  seats, 
and  their  successors  shall  be  elected.** 

In  ordinary  cases  the  election  shall  take  place  at  the  same 
time  as  the  elections  for  Provincial  Assemblymen,  the  votes- 
for  Councilor  and  for  Assemblyman  being  cast  together. 

The  Council  shall  be  the  judge  of  the  elections,  returns 
and  qualifications  of  the  Councilors-elect  and  of  the  quali- 
fications of  the  Councilors  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  shall 
decide  all  questions  concerning  its  own  organization  under 
the  law. 

BASIS  III. 

The  Council  of  Administration  shall  resolve  whatever  it 
may  deem  proper  for  the  management  in  the  whole  Island ; 

*  Each  of  the  six  provinces  of  Cuba — like  every  other  Spanish 
province — has  a  Provincial  Assembly.  The  Assembly  meets  twice  a 
year  in  sessions  of  about  two  weeks,  and  appoints  from  its  members 
a  Provincial  Executive  Committee  {comision  provincial)  to  act  dur- 
ing the  intervals  between  the  sessions. 

**  At  the  next  election  the  Councilors  elected  for  the  second  group  of 
provinces  would  vacate  their  seats. 

—  90  — 


of  public  works,  posts  and  telegraphs,  railways  and  naviga-  Powers  of  the 
tion,  agriculture,  manufactures,  trade,  immigration  and 
colonization,  public  instruction,  charities  and  the  health 
department,  without  prejudice  to  the  supervision  and  to  the 
powers  inherent  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  nation,  which  are 
reserved  by  law  to  the  Supreme  Government. 

Each  year  it  shall  prepare  and  approve  the  estimates  with 
sufficient  appropriations  for  all  those  departments.  It  shall 
exercise  the  functions  that  the  laws  of  provinces  and  of 
municipalities  and  other  special  laws  shall  attribute  to  it.  It 
shall  correct,  and  in  the  proper  cases  approve,  the  accounts 
of  its  revenues  and  expenditures,  which  accounts  shall  be 
rendered  every  year  by  the  general  management  of  the  local 
administration,*  and  shall  determine  the  liabilities  therein 
incurred  by  officials. 

The  local  revenues**  shall  consist  of  : 

1.  The  proceeds  of  Crown  lands  and  rents,  and  of  the  in-      Revenues. 
stitutions    whose    financial     management    pertains     to    the 
Council. 

2.  The  surcharges  which,  within  the  limits  fixed  by  law, 
the  council  may  add  to  the  taxes  imposed  by  the  State. 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Governor  General,  as  superior 
chief  of  the  authorities  of  the  Island,  to  carry  out  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  Council. 

For  that  purpose  the  general  management  of  the  local  ad- 
ministration, as  delegate  of  the  Governor  General,  shall  at- 
tend to  the  departments  included  in  the  local  estimates  and 
shall  keep  the  books  thereof  and  shall  be  responsible  for  the 
non-fulfillment  of  the  laws  and  of  the  legitimate  resolutions  of 
the  Council  of  Administration. 

Whenever  the  Governor  General  may  deem  any  resolution 
of  the  Council  contrary  to  the  law  or  to  the  general  interests 
of  the  nation,  he  shall  stay  its  execution,  and  shall  of  his 
own  motion  take  such  measures  as  the  public  needs — which 
would  otherwise  be  neglected — may  require,  immediately 
submitting  the  matter  to  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies. 

If  any  resolution  of  the  Council  unduly  injures  the  rights  of 
a  citizen  the  Councilors  who  shall  have  contributed  with  their 
votes  to  the  passage  of  the  resolution  shall  be  liable,  before 


*  An  office  in  charge  of  a  superior  official  that  under  the  Governor 
General  act  as  the  executive  of  the  Council  of  Administration. 

**  Revenues  of  which  the  Council  of  Administration  may  dispose. 

—  91  — 


Suspension  of 
Members 
of  Council. 


Advisory 

Powers  of 

Council. 


the  courts  having  jurisdiction,  to  indemnify  or  make  restitu- 
tion to  the  injured  party. 

The  Governor  General,  after  hearing  the  Council  of  Authori- 
ties, may  suspend  the  Council  of  Administration,  or,  with- 
out hearing  the  Council  of  Authorities,  may  suspend 
individual  members  of  the  Council  of  Administration  as  long 
as  a  number  of  Councilors  sufficient  to  form  a  quorum 
remains : 

1.  When  the  Council  or  any  one  of  its  members  transgresses 
the  limits  of  its  legitimate  powers,  and  impairs  the  authority 
of  the  Governor  General  or  the  judicial  authority,  or  threat- 
ens to  disturb  the  public  peace. 

2.  For  a  misdemeanor. 

In  the  first  case  the  Governor  General  shall  immediately 
inform  the  Supreme  Government  of  the  suspension,  so  that 
the  latter  may  either  set  it  aside  or,  through  a  resolution 
adopted  by  the  Council  of  Ministers  within  two  months, 
decree  the  removal.  If  at  the  expiration  of  the  two  months 
the  suspension  has  not  been  acted  upon,  it  shall,  as  a  matter 
of  right,  be  deemed  set  aside. 

In  the  second  case,  the  matter  shall  come  before  the  court 
having  jurisdiction,  which  shall  be  the  full  Supreme  Court 
of  Havana,  and  its  decision  therein  shall  be  final.  In  other 
cases  the  accused  may  appeal. 

The  Council  shall  have  a  hearing : 

1.  Upon  the  general  estimates  of  expenditures  and  revenues 
of  the  Island,  which  estimates,  prepared  by  the  Finance 
Department  of  the  Island,  shall  be  submitted  yearly,  to- 
gether with  the  changes  suggested  by  the  Council, 
during  the  month  of  March,  or  earlier,  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Colonies. 

Although  the  Supreme  Government  may  have  varied  the 
estimates  before  submitting  them  to  the  Cortes  for  appro- 
priations to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  departments  and  the 
general  obligations  of  the  state,  it  shall  always  submit  with 
them,  for  purposes  of  information,  the  changes  suggested  by 
the  council. 

2.  Upon  the  general  accounts,  which  the  Finance  Depart- 
ment of  the  Island  must  without  fail  submit  annually  within 
the  six  months  following  the  end  of  the  fiscal  year,  and  which 
shall  include  the  revenues  collected  and  the  expenditures 
liquidated. 


—  92  — 


3.  Upon  the  matters  pertaining  to  the  patronage*  of  the 
Indies. 

4.  Upon  the  decisions  of  Provincial  Governors  which  shall 
come  on  appeal  before  the  Governor  General. 

5.  Upon  the  removals  or  suspensions  of  Mayors  and  Alder- 
men. 

6.  Upon  other  matters  of  a  general  nature. 

The  Governor  General  may  demand  of  the  Council  the 
reports  he  may  desire. 

The  Council  shall  meet  in  ordinary  sessions  at  stated  inter- 
vals, and  in  extraordinary  session  whenever  the  Governor 
General  may  summon  it. 


BASIS  IV. 


The  Governor  General  shall  be  the  representative  of  the 
National  Government  in  the  Island  of  Cuba.  He  shall  as 
vice-royal  patron  exercise  the  powers  inherent  to  the  patron- 
age of  the  Indies.  He  shall  be  the  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  Army  and  Navy  stationed  on  the  Island.  He  shall  be  the 
delegate  of  the  Ministers  of  the  Colonies,  of  State,  of  War 
and  of  the  Navy.  All  the  other  authorities  of  the  Island  shall 
be  his  subordinates.  He  shall  be  appointed  and  removed  by 
the  President  of  the  Council  of  Ministers,  with  the  assent  of 
the  Council. 

In  addition  to  the  other  functions  which  pertain  to  him  by 
law  or  by  special  delegation  of  the  Government  it  shall  be 
his  duty : 

To  proclaim,  execute  and  cause  to  be  executed,  on  the 
Island,  the  laws,  decrees,  treaties,  international  conventions 
and  other  mandates  that  emanate  from  the  legislature. 

To  proclaim,  execute  and  cause  to  be  executed  the  de- 
crees. Royal  orders,  and  other  mandates  that  emanate  from 


Powers  and 
Duties  of 

the  Qovernor 
General. 


*  In  England  when  lords  of  manors  first  built  and  endowed 
churches  on  their  lands  they  had  the  right  of  nominating  clergymen 
(provided  they  were  canonically  qualified)  to  oflEi.:iate  in  them.  This 
right  is  the  "patronage"  (Jus  patrona/us).  The  Bulls  of  Alex- 
ander VI.  in  1493  and  of  Julius  II.  in  1508  granted  the  Crown  of 
Spain  the  patronage  of  the  Indies  (New  World).  It  includes  not  only 
the  right  of  presentation  to  the  churches  and  monasteries  built  and 
endowed  by  the  Crown,  but  other  rights  so  extensive  that  the  author 
speaksof  the  Kings  of  Spain  as  the  "born  delegates  of  the  Holy  See 
and  apostolic  vicar-generals  in  the  Indies." — Translator's  Note. 

—  93  — 


the  executive,  and  which  the  Ministers,  whose  delegate  he  is, 
may  communicate  to  him. 

To  suspend  the  proclamation  and  execution  of  resolutions 
of  His  Majesty's  Government,  when  in  his  judgment  such  res- 
olutions might  prove  injurious  to  the  general  interests  of  the 
nation  or  to  the  special  interests  of  Island,  informing  the 
Minister  concerned  of  the  suspension,  and  of  the  reason 
therefor,  in  the  speediest  manner  possible. 

To  superintend  and  inspect  all  the  departments  of  the 
public  service. 

To  communicate  directly  upon  foreign  affairs  with  the 
representatives,  diplomatic  agents  and  consuls  of  Spain  in 
the  Americas. 

To  suspend,  after  consultation  with  the  Council  of  Authori- 
ties, the  execution  of  a  sentence  of  death,  whenever  the 
gravity  of  the  circumstances  may  require  it,  and  the  urgency 
of  the  case  be  such  that  there  is  no  opportunity  to  apply  to 
His  Majesty  for  pardon. 

To  suspend,  after  consultation  with  the  same  Council,  and 
on  his  own  responsibility,  whenever  extraordinary  circum- 
stances prevent  previous  communication  with  the  Supreme 
Government,  the  constitutional  rights  expressed  in  Articles 
IV.,  v.,  VI.  and  IX.,  and  Sections  1,  2  and  3  of  Article  XIII. 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  State,  and  to  apply  the  Riot  Act. 

It  shall  also  be  the  duty  of  the  Governor  General  as  head 
of  the  civil  administration  : 

To  keep  each  department  of  the  administration  within  the 
limits  of  its  powers. 

To  devise  the  general  rules  necessary  for  the  execution  of 
the  laws  and  regulations,  submitting  them  to  the  Minister  of 
the  Colonies. 

To  conform  strictly  to  the  regulations  and  orders  devised 
by  the  Supreme  Government  for  the  due  execution  of  the 
laws. 

To  determine  the  penal  institutions  in  which  sentences  are 
to  be  served,  to  order  the  incarceration  therein  of  convicts, 
and  to  designate  the  jail  liberties  when  the  courts  order  con- 
finement therein. 

To  suspend  any  public  official  whose  appointment  pertains 
to  the  Supreme  Government,  giving  the  Government  imme- 
diate notice  of  the  suspension,  with  the  reasons  therefor,  and 
to  fill  pro  tempore  the  vacancy  in  accordance  with  the  regu- 
lations now  in  force. 

To  act  as  intermediary  between  the  Ministers,  whose  dele- 
gate he  is,  and  all  the  authorities  of  the   Island. 

—  94  — 


The  Council  of  Authorities  shall  consist  of  the  following  Council  of 
members:  The  Bishop  of  Havana  or  the  Reverend  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Santiago  de  Cuba,  if  the  latter  be  present;  the 
Commander  of  the  Naval  Station,  the  Military  Governor,  the 
presiding  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Havana,  the 
Attorney-General,  the  head  of  the  Department  of  Finances, 
and  the  director  of  local  administration. 

The  resolutions  of  this  Council  shall  be  drawn  up  in  dupli- 
cate and  one  of  the  copies  shall  be  sent  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Colonies.  They  are  not  binding  upon  the  Governor  General. 
All  his  acts  must  be  upon  his  own  responsibility. 

The  Governor  General  shall  not  surrender  his  office  nor 
absent  himself  from  the  Island  without  the  express  order  of 
the  Supreme  Government. 

In  case  of  vacancy,  absence  or  inability  the  Military  Gov- 
ernor shall  be  his  substitute,  and  in  default  of  the  latter  the 
Commander  of  the  Naval  Station,  until  the  Supreme  Govern- 
ment appoints  a  pro  tempore  Governor  General. 

The  criminal  part  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Madrid  shall 
have  the  sole  jurisdiction  over  the  Governor  General  for  in- 
fractions of  the  Penal  Code.  Charges  of  maladministration 
against  the  Governor  General  shall  be  brought  before  the 
Council  of  Ministers. 

The  Governor  General  shall  not  amend  nor  revoke  his  own 
decisions  when  they :  have  been  confirmed  by  the  Supreme 
Government ;  or  have  vested  rights ;  or  have  served  as  the 
basis  of  a  judgment  of  a  court,  or  of  the  adjudication  of  a 
mixed  juridical  administrative  tribunal;  or  when  he  bases JW&.X ^B Jf"j^7^ 
decision  upon  the  limitations  of  his  powers.  t^TTlf  *  ^'  1^'' 


SR 


BASIS  V.  .,**•• 

The  civil  and  financial  administration  of  the  Island,  under       civii  and 
the  supervision  of  the  Governor  General,  shall  be  organized    ministration" 
in  accordance  with  the  following  rules : 

The  Governor  General  with  his  staff  of  secretaries,  which 
shall  be  under  the  direction  of  a  chief  of  department,  shall 
attend  directly  to  matters  of  government,  the  patronage  of 
the  Indies,  conflicts  of  jurisdiction,  public  peace,  foreign 
affairs,  jails,  penitentiaries,  statistics,  personnel  of  the  de- 
partments, communication  between  all  the  authorities  of  the 
Island  and  the  Supreme  Government,  and  all  the  other  mat- 
ters that  are  unassigned. 

The  Finance  Department,  which  shall  be  under  the  charge 
of  a  superior  chief  of  department,  shall  attend  to  the  whole 

—  95  — 


management  of  the  finances;  it  shall  keep  the  books,  and 
audit  and  submit  the  accounts  of  the  estimates  of  the  State  on 
the  Island. 

The  provincial  administrative  sections  shall  be  under  the 
direct  control  of  the  Finance  Department,  without  prejudice 
to  the  supervision  that  the  Governor  General  may  delegate  in 
fixed  cases  to  the  Provincial  Governor. 

The  general  management  of  local  administration,  under 
the  charge  of  a  superior  chief  of  administration,  shall  attend 
to  the  departments  that  shall  be  supported  with  the  appro- 
priations made  by  the  Council  of  Administration ;  it  shall  keep 
the  books,  and  audit  and  submit  the  annual  accounts  of  the 
estimates  of  the  Council  and  of  the  municipalities,  and  shall 
enforce  the  resolutions  of  the  Council  of  Administration. 

The  personnel  of  the  offices  and  the  methods  for  the  trans- 
action of  affairs  shall  be  adapted  to  the  object  of  obtaining 
the  greatest  simplicity  in  the  transaction  of  affairs  and  in  fix- 
ing official  responsibility. 

The  rules  of  law  shall  determine  the  cases  in  which  aright 
is  vested  through  the  decision  of  a  superior  official  in  a  matter 
that,  in  accordance  with  this  basis,  falls  within  his  jurisdic- 
tion, so  that  an  action  before  the  mixed  juridical-administra- 
tive tribunal  may  lie. 

Nevertheless  the  injured  party  may  at  any  time  bring  a 
complaint  before  the  Governor  General  in  matters  which 
concern  the  Finance  Department  and  the  general  management 
of  local  administration,  and  also  before  the  Minister  of  the 
Colonies  in  any  matter  that  concerns  the  administration  or 
the  government  of  the  Island;  but  the  complaint  shall  not 
interrupt  the  administrative  process,  nor  the  legal  procedure, 
nor  the  course  of  the  action  before  the  mixed  juridical-admin- 
istrative tribunal. 

The  Governor  General  and  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies, 
when  using  their  powers  of  supervision,  either  on  their  own 
initiative  or  owing  to  a  complaint,  shall  refrain  from  inter- 
rupting the  ordinary  course  of  affairs,  as  long  as  there  be  no 
necessity  of  taking  measures  to  remedy  or  prevent  irre- 
parable damage,  before  the  final  decision  of  the  competent 
authority.  

ARTICLE  IL* 
Provincial  ARTICLE  III.     The  system  of  election  and  the  division  of 

Elections.      ^j^g  provinces  into  districts  for  the  provincial  elections  shall  be 


*  Article  II.  of  this  act  refers  exclusively  to  Porto  Rico.     Article 
III.  refers  both  to  Cuba  and  to  Porto  Rico. 


—  96  — 


modified  by  the  Government,  in  order  to  enable  minorities  in 
both  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  to  have  representation  in  the 
municipalities  and  in  the  Provincial  Assemblies,  and  in  Cuba 
in  the  Council  of  Administration  of  Cuba,  and  in  order- 
to  apply  to  the  election  of  Aldermen,  Provincial  Assem- 
blymen and  Councilors  of  Administration — in  so  far  as  the 
qualifications  of  voters  and  the  annual  formation  and  recti- 
fication of  the  registration  lists  are  concerned — the  provisions 
of  the  Royal  Decree  of  December  27,  1892,  upon  the  reform  of 
the  electoral  law  for  the  election  of  representatives  to  the 
Cortes,  Articles  XIV.,  XV.  and  XVI.  of  the  said  Royal  Decree 
shall  be  extended  to  all  classes  of  elections. 

For  all  electoral  purposes  the  taxes  imposed  by  the  Council 
of  Administration  in  Cuba,  and  by  the  Provincial  Assembly  in 
Porto  Rico,  by  virtue  of  the  new  powers  granted  to  them  by 
this  act,  shall  be  computed  as  if  imposed  by  the  State. 

ADDITIONAL    ARTICLE. 

The  Government  shall  render  to  the  Cortes  an  account  of 
the  use  it  makes  of  the  powers  hereby  granted  to  it. 

TRANSITIONAL   PROVISIONS. 

1.  The  Councilors  of  Administration  elected  in  the  Island 
of  Cuba  upon  the  proclamation  of  this  act  shall  stay  in  office 
until  the  first  election  for  Provincial  Assemblymen  that  hap 
pens  after  two  years  have  passed  since  the  first  election  of" 
the  Council. 

2.  The  rectification,  according  to  the  methods  that  shall  be 
established  under  Article  III.  of  this  act,  of  the  registration  lists- 
for  the  election  of  Aldermen  and  of  Provincial  Assemblymen 
in  both  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  and  of  Councilors  of  Adminis- 
tration in  Cuba,  shall  commence  from  the  time  of  the 
proclamation  of  this  act. 

The  Minister  for  the  Colonies  shall  ordain,  by  Royal  Decree, 
the  necessary  measures,  and  shall  fix  the  time  for  the  various 
operations  of  the  rectification,  so  that  it  may  be  finished 
before  any  election  take  place  to  establish  the  Council  of  Ad- 
ministration in  Cuba  or  to  fill  the  seats  of  members  of 
municipal  corporations  whose  terms  have  expired. 

The  election  for  the  latter  purpose  shall  under  no  circum- 
stances be  postponed,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Boards  of 
Aldermen,*  which,  in  this  present  year,  and  if  the  Supreme 

*  Municipal  corporations  in  Cuba,  as  in  the  Peninsula,  have  a 
Board  of  Aldermen  {ayuniamtento)  and  a  Municipal  Council  {junta, 
municipal). 

—  97  — 


Government  deem  it  necessary,  may  be  postponed  until  the 
first  fortnight  of  next  June. 

In  subsequent  years  the  rectification  shall  take  place  in  the 
manner  provided  by  the  Royal  Decree  of  December  27,  1892, 
referred  to  in  Article  III.  of  this  act. 

Therefore : 

We  order  all  the  courts,  justices,  chiefs,  governors  and 
other  authorities,  civil,  military  and  ecclesiastical,  of  whatso- 
ever class  or  dignity,  to  keep,  and  cause  to  be  kept,  fulfill 
and  execute  this  act  in  all  its  parts. 

Given  in  the  Palace,  March  15,  1895. 

I,  THE  Queen  Regent. 

The  Minister  for  the  Colonies. 
Buenaventura  Abarzuza. 


-  wtt  - 


iPari  Vhird. 


SPoiiiieal  and  Social  Condition  of  the 
Sstand  of  Cuba. — Statistics  of  its  Tl^ealth 
and  Commercial  T^ovement. — Sts  iProff" 
ress  llnder  Spanish  S^ule  Compared  with 
Xjhat  of  independent  Spanish~Jxmerican 
Countries, 

^y  JC,  V,  i^bad  de  las  Casas, 


Note — The  following  paper  was  written  by  Seflor  Abad  de  las  Casas,  a  Cuban 
Autonomist,  in  New  York,  in  1896,  before  Sefior  Canovas  framed  the  new  plan 
of  reforms  which  appears  in  Part  II.  of  this  volume,  and  it  is  now  published  as 
written,  the  author's  views  having  been  confirmed  by  subsequent  events  and 
strengthened  by  his  experience  and  observations  during  his  recent  travels 
through  Spanish-American  countries. — THE  PUBLISHERS. 


I. 


IN  view  of  the  determined    eflforts  of  certain  of  the 
newspapers  of  this  country  to  convert  the  insurrec- 
tion of  a  part  of  the  Cuban  people  into  an  Ameri- 
can question; 

Of  the  partisan  campaign  which  is  being  carried  on  with 
that  object  by  certain  penny  journals,  which  seem  to  have 
made  it  their  aim  to  deprave  public  taste  and  discredit 
journalism  by  their  sensational  articles  on  all  subjects, 
without  previously  investigating  them,  and  by  their  illus- 
trations like  circus  posters,  which  are  veritable  crimes 
against  art ; 

Of  the  campaign  that,  personally,  in  meetings  or  by 
means  of  pamphlets  written  in  English,  the  agents  of  the 
insurrection  are  unceasingly  carrying  on  for  the  purpose 
of  misleading  and  influencing  public  opinion  by  the  circu- 
lation of  Spanish  and  Cuban  news,  which,  if  not  always 
false,  is  at  least  exaggerated  or  partial  in  a  sense  favora- 
ble to  their  aims; 

And  even  of  the  efforts  of  certain  politicians  of  this 
country  who,  through  party  interest  or  personal  ambition, 
have  made  a  trade  of  villifying  Spain  in  their  speeches 
and  writings,  wilfully  or  ignorantly  misrepresenting  the 
facts,  with  the  same  purpose  of  misleading  public  opinion, 
thereby  proving  how  little  they  care  about  involving  the 
country  in  international  conflicts  in  which  the  people,  who 
do  not  live  by  politics,  must  always  lose ; 

In  view,  then,  of  this  treacherous  and  malicious  propa- 
ganda, I   have   resolved   to  write   these  papers,  which  I 

—  101—  . 


trust  the  people  of  the  United  States  will  read  with  enough 
attention  to  enable  them  to  perceive  that  they  are  inspired 
only  by  the  desire  of  making  known  the  truth,  in  order 
that  the  question  may  be  judged  with  a  full  knowledge  of 
the  facts. 

A  Cuban  by  birth  and  an  advocate  of  self-government 
for  the  Spanish  provinces  of  the  Antilles  and  the  Philippine 
Islands  since  the  time  when  I  first  took  part  in  Cuban 
politics,  I  can  assure  my  readers  that  they  will  find  in 
these  pages  neither  a  panegyric  of  the  Spanish  Govern- 
ment, whose  system  of  administration  I  have  always  com- 
batted,  and  which  is  the  cause  of  many  of  the  evils  which 
the  Cubans  suffer,  nor  a  eulogy  of  my  fellow  country- 
men, who  are  themselves  in  no  small  degree  to  blame  for 
these  evils. 

In  the  majority  of  the  articles  published  in  English 
which  treat  of  Cuba  the  impression  is  sought  to  be  con- 
veyed more  or  less  plainly,  according  to  the  amount  of 
conscience  the  writer  still  has  left,  that  the  question  of  the 
independence  of  Cuba  from  Spain  is  similar  to  that  of 
Greece  from  Turkey,  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  cen- 
tury— an  error  which  has  the  result  of  arousing  in  the 
public  mind,  easily  influenced  and  more  or  less  romantic, 
a  feeling  of  sympathy  toward  the  insurgents,  thus  con- 
verted into  heroes  of  romance,  and  of  prejudice  against 
Spain. 

It  is  true  that,  on  the  other  hand,  other  writers,  with 
less  feeling  perhaps,  but  with  more  conscience  and  more 
talent,  have  presented  the  question  under  another  and 
more  impartial  aspect ;  but  the  articles  of  these  writers, 
not  sensational  enough  for  the  readers  of  the  cheap  news- 
papers, have  appeared  m  reviews,  or  in  newspapers  of  a 
serious  character,  whose  readers  have  less  need  of  exact 
information,  as  their  higher  mental  culture  enables  them 
more  easily  to  distinguish  the  true  from  the  false. 

Of  course   the   first   mentioned   writers  represent  the 

— 102  — 


Spaniards  as  barbarians,  incapable  of  comprehending  a 
word  of  political  science  or  modern  law,  and  the  Spanish 
soldiers  as  vandals. 

In  a  pamphlet  written,  it  is  to  be  said,  in  very  bad 
English,  I  have  read  the  following: 

"  During  her  rule  of  400  years  Spain  has  not  taken  a 
single  step  tending  to  the  development  of  the  country  or 
to  the  well-being  of  the  people." 

This  statement  would  be  merely  ridiculous  if  the  author 
(who  was  born  in  Cuba)  did  not  show  in  making  it  that 
his  bad  faith  is  even  greater  than  his  ignorance  of  Cuban 
affairs,  which  is,  however,  great  enough. 

In  fact,  to  suppose  that  the  University  of  Havana,  one 
of  the  oldest  universities  in  America  ;  the  Economic  So- 
ciety of  Friends  of  the  Country,  established  under  the 
protection  of  Governor  Las  Casas  in  1793,  and  the  posi- 
tion which  Cuba  holds,  as  the  foremost  among  all  the 
Ibero- American  countries  in  culture  and  material  pros- 
perity, are  not  due  to  Spain,  or  to  the  children  of  Spaniards 
born  in  Cuba,  who  are  also  Spaniards  so  long  as  Cuba 
does  not  change  her  nationality,  is  the  height  of  fanaticism, 
for  none  but  a  fanatic  could  make  such  absurd  allega- 
tions. 

But  if  the  insurgent  propagandists  make  charges  so  false 
and  ridiculous  against  Spanish  civilization  in  America,  it 
shall  be  my  pleasure  to  remind  my  readers  that  a  distin- 
guished North  American  writer,  Mr.  Arthur  R.  Marshall,  in 
one  of  his  works  on  anthology  draws  attention  to  the  solici- 
tude of  Spain  for  her  American  possessions,  to  which  she 
carried  her  culture,  her  political  science,  her  literature,  her 
arts  and  sciences,  in  contrast  to  the  species  of  indifference 
with  which  England  always  regarded  her  North  American 
colonies ;  so  that  while  the  golden  age  of  English  literature 
scarcely  found  an  echo  in  New  England,  the  Spaniards 
founded  universities  and  colleges  in  Mexico,  Peru,  Ecua- 
dor, New  Granada,  Venezuela  and  Havana  as  early  as  the 

— 103  —     . 


sixteenth  century,  which  produced  men  of  letters  whose 
fame  became  universal.* 

The  Cubans  are  descendants  of  either  Spaniards  or 
Indians  or  negroes,  or  they  are  of  mixed  blood;  in  this 
case  also  they  are  the  children  of  foreigners,  who  in  gen- 
eral marry  the  daughters  of  Spaniards, 

Those  who  deny  their  ancestors  and  ridicule  them 
abroad,  in  order  to  justify  the  ideal  of  freedom,  which  is 
in  itself  lofty  and  noble,  and  requires  no  sophisms  to  de- 
fend it,  may  be  shrewd  business  men,  but  they  show 
plainly  that  they  are  not  good  patriots,  for  he  who  dis- 
honors his  ancestors  cannot  honor  his  country. 

If  the  insurgent  propagandists  should  say  that  they  de- 
sire absolute  independence  from  Spain  because  they 
represent  a  majority  of  the  population  of  the  country, 
which  considers  that  it  possesses  the  necessary  conditions 
to  constitute  itself  an  independent  state,  then  the  work  of 
the  Cubans  who  have  other  political  ideas  would  reduce 
itself  to  ascertaining  which  of  the  political  parties  is  in  the 
majority,  and  then  giving  their  support  either  to  their 
rebellious  countrymen  or  to  the  Spanish  Government. 

But  in  view  of  the  campaign  which  the  propagandists 
are  making  those  Cubans  who,  like  myself,  disown  false 
statements  and  misrepresentations  of  facts  which  are  in 
this  case  both  illogical  and  base,  should  also  disown  the 
calumnies  propagated  against  the  Spaniards,  and  state 
facts  as  they  really  are. 

To  enter,  then,  upon  our  subject:  Remaking  history, 
the  insurgent  propagandists  represent  our  forefathers,  the 
conquerors  of  America,  as  utterly  ferocious  in  their 
instincts  and  cruel  in  their  methods  of  government. 

The  chivalrous  and  disinterested,  loyal  and  generous 
•character  of  the  Spanish  people,  even  in  mediaeval  times, 
when  the  passions  were  intensified  by  the  religious  ideals 

♦Arthur  Richmond  Marshall;  The  Nation,  New  York,  Janu- 
ary 3  and  10,  1896. 

—  104  — 


of  the  age,  is  proverbial ;  and  although  even  the  casual 
reader  may  find  in  the  history  of  Spain,  as  in  that  of 
France  and  England,  barbarous  and  sanguinary  deeds,  yet 
in  no  nation — and  this  nothwithstanding  the  fact  that 
there  existed  in  Spain  for  three  centuries  a  religious  tri- 
bunal which  condemned  many  unhappy  persons  to  the 
stake  or  the  torture — were  so  many  capital  sentences 
executed,  nor  was  the  number  of  the  victims  of  religious 
fanaticism  so  great  as  in  the  northern  nations  of  Europe. 

In  Spain  there  has  never  been  any  prison  with  a  history 
similar  to  that  of  the  Tower  of  London  or  the  Bastille. 

Naturally  the  Spanish  adventurers  who  exposed  their 
lives  in  open  boats  to  go  to  unknown  countries  were  not 
savants  who  went  to  America  to  botanize,  in  the  same  way 
as  the  men  who  landed  in  New  England  did  not  go  there 
to  botanize. 

To  prevent  the  evils  which  emigration  might  bring  with 
it,  laws  were  enacted  for  the  protection  of  the  Indians, 
and  that  Spain  did  not  employ  a  policy  of  extermination 
toward  them  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  region  of 
America  which  up  to  seventy  years  ago  was  governed  by 
Spanish  laws  has  at  the  present  time  a  population  of 
18,000,000  of  Indians  of  unmixed  blood.* 

The  American  people,  knowing  as  they  do  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  American  aborigines,  and  knowing  also 
that  in  all  the  vast  territory  of  the  Union,  according  to 
the  census  of  1890,  there  remained  only  249,000  Indians, 
while  there  were  still  in  1870  350,000,  cannot  fail  to  per- 
ceive that  if  Spanish  laws  had  tended  to  the  extermi- 
nation of  the  Indians,  the  customs  inherited  by  the  Spanish- 

*  According  to  the  official  statistics  of  the  following  republics  the 
approximate  number  of  Indians  in  each  of  them  is  as  follows: 
Mexico,  3,760,000;  Guatemala,  850,000;  Honduras,  250,000;  Salvador, 
300,000;  Nicaragua,  200,000;  Costa  Rica,  50,000;  Colombia,  700.000; 
Venezuela,  1,000,000;  Ecuador,  600,000;  Brazil,  8,000,000;  the 
Argentine  Republic,  1,000,000;  Uruguay,  130,000;  Paraguay,  70,000; 
Bolivia,  1,750,000;  Peru,  1,400,000,  and  Chih,  50,000. 

—  105—    . 


Americans  would  not  of  themselves  have  sufficed  to  cause 
the  survival  of  this  enormous  contingent  of  the  race  which 
scientists  are  agreed  in  saying  tends  to  disappear  from  the 
face  of  the  earth. 

The  names  of  Commander  Ovando  and  of  one  or  two 
other  Governors  are  often  cited,  and  history  has  con- 
demned them  severely  for  their  cruelty  to  the  aborigines ; 
but  the  repeated  mention  in  histories  and  works  of  fiction 
of  the  same  rulers  is  the  best  proof  that  they  were  the 
exception  to  the  rule ;  as  in  the  modem  history  of  Cuba 
only  two  governors  (Tacon  and  Lersundi,  who  by  their 
arbitrary  acts  greatly  prejudiced  the  cause  of  Spain)  are 
thus  mentioned. 

It  was  precisely  the  philanthropic  sentiments  of  an 
eminent  monk,  Bartolome  de  las  Casas,  toward  the  Amer- 
ican aborigines  that  caused  him  to  advocate  the  introduc- 
tion of  negroes  into  America,  as  a  means  of  exempting 
the  Indians  from  labor,  which  they  performed  only  under 
coercion,  owing  to  their  general  refractoriness  to  adapt 
themselves  to  European  civilization.  In  the  United 
States,  also,  there  has  been  given  the  opportunity  to  verify 
this  fact.  The  social  evils  which  slavery  brought  to  Cuba 
were  caused  necessarily  by  the  character  of  the  Indians 
themselves  and  of  their  civilization. 

No  serious  historian  has  stated  that  there  were  800,000 
Indians  in  Cuba  in  the  fifteenth  century,  as  another  pam- 
phleteer asserts,  who  employs  his  pen  in  favor  of  the 
insurgent  cause,  and  who  represents  that  backward  race 
as  a  model  of  all  the  virtues,  as  the  sole  descendants  of 
Abel,  and  the  inhabitants  of  an  Eden  without  the  serpent. 

The  Indians  have  disappeared  from  the  Antilles  be- 
cause they  were  few  in  number,  for  it  is  well  known  that 
they  lived  in  perpetual  conflict  with  the  ferocious  Caribbee 
Indians,  who  decimated  their  numbers;  many  of  them 
went  to  Yucatan  and  thence  to  the  Mexican  deserts,  beyond 
the  pale  of  the  civilization  which  they  rejected ;  the  rest 

—  106  — 


became  gradually  amalgamated  with  the  invading"  white 
and  black  races,  and  the  descendants  of  these  mixed  races 
are  frequently  to  be  met  with  in  Cuba,  Santo  Domingo 
and  Porto  Rico. 

In  a  report  presented  to  the  King  of  Spain  in  1522,  the 
number  of  Indians  then  in  the  Island  was  estimated  at 
5,000.  As  the  number  of  negro  slaves  that  had  been  in- 
troduced into  the  Island  was  much  larger  than  this  (in  1774 
there  were  40,000  African  slaves  in  Cuba),  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  aboriginal  race  is  not  to  be  wondered  at. 

Senor  Montoro,  an  eminent  Cuban,  a  member  of  the 
Autonomist  party  in  Havana,  and  a  Deputy  to  the  Spanish 
Cortes  in  various  legislatures,  defended  his  Autonomist 
opinions  in  a  lecture  on  Cuba,  given  in  the  Athenaeum  in 
Madrid,  basing  them  precisely  on  the  ancient  Spanish  laws, 
called  the  Laws  of  the  Indies,  and  declaring  that  at  that 
period  the  principle  of  self-government  for  America  was 
accepted  in  the  mother  country. 

"  By  virtue  of  this  condition,"  says  Senor  Montoro,  "  the 
new  kingdoms  (of  America)  were  organized  like  those  of 
the  Peninsula,  but  with  their  own  institutions,  although 
they  were  analogous  to  those  of  the  mother  country,  and, 
when  the  case  admitted  of  it,  identical,  but  separate  or  dis- 
tinct from  them.  I  will  mention,  as  an  instance,  the 
system  of  government  of  the  municipalities  which,  in  the 
first  period  of  colonization,  had  more  attributes  and 
powers  than  those  which  the  Peninsula  enjoyed  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  the  period  in  which  municipalities  with  self- 
governing  powers  were  organized.  The  '  Juntas  de  Pro- 
curadores '  were  very  similar  to  what  the  Insular  Chamber 
to  which  we  aspire  to-day  would  be. " 

The  laws  enacted  in  1530  and  1540,  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  I.,  ordained  the  assembling  of  Congresses — real 
Congresses — in  Mexico  and  Peru,  conferring  on  the  prin- 
cipal cities  privileges  analogous  to  those  which  Burgos,  in 
Castile,  enjoyed. 

— 107  —    • 


As  another  proof  that  the  Spanish  poHcy  toward  the  colo- 
nies has  not  always  been  retrogressive,  I  will  quote  a  pas- 
sage from  a  discourse  pronounced  in  the  Spanish  Cortes 
by  Seiior  Labra,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Autonomist 
party. 

"  See,  if  this  be  not  so,  how  in  the  Island  of  Cuba,  the 
only  country  to  which  I  need  now  refer,  public  spirit  is 
awakened  in  the  eighteenth  century,  at  the  same  time  that 
a  humane,  equitable  and  provident  measure  in  commercial 
legislation  is  initiated  (the  decree  of  Charles  III.,  in  1765, 
establishing  free  trade  with  the  Colonies) ;  the  never-to- 
be-forgotten  General  Las  Casas,  a  man  of  exceptionally 
advanced  ideas  of  reform,  is  sent  there ;  and  the  Economic 
Society  of  Friends  of  the  Country  is  founded,  with  powers 
and  attributes  so  ample  that  it  organizes  and  directs  public 
works  and  education,  fosters  agriculture,  industry  and 
trade,  and  thus  becomes  a  sort  of  Department  of  Public 
Works,  directing  and  administering,  under  the  authority 
of  the  Governor  General,  those  important  branches  on 
which  the  prosperity  and  civilization  of  new  countries  de- 
pend." 

It  is  true  that  these  liberal  institutions  were  afterward 
lost,  as  they  were  lost  by  the  mother  country  itself,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  various  political  crises  through  which  it 
passed,  and  which  brought  with  them  the  decadence  of 
the  kingdom. 

Cuba  being  a  part  of  the  Spanish  monarchy  and  peo- 
pled to-day  by  the  Spanish  race,  the  evil  times  in  the  na- 
tion's history  should  not  be  the  only  ones  to  be  recalled. 
Let  also  the  good  times  be  remembered,  or  none  at  all. 

The  invasion  of  Napoleon  produced  the  first  revolutions 
of  America,  which,  because  of  the  failure  of  the  Spanish 
rulers  to  understand  them,  became  converted  into  wars 
of  independence.  The  very  independence  of  the  United 
States,  accomplished  thirty  years  before,  had  of  necessity 
a  part  in  this  change  of  ideals ;  but  it  must  not  be  for- 

—  108  — 


gotten,  as  it  is  not  forgotten  by  the  American  republics, 
which  are  to-day  the  friends  of  Spain,  that  it  was  not 
motives  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  sovereignty  of  Spain 
that  produced  this  premature  dismemberment  of  terri- 
tories that  were  not  yet  prepared  to  become  independent 
states;  but,  on  the  contrary,  a  sentiment  of  loyalty  to  the 
Bourbon  dynasty,  as  events  demonstrated  later. 


mvs 


II. 


«>:». 


After  this  terrible  "struggle  just  referred  to  of  the  Span- 
ish people  with  the  greatest  captain  of  modern  times,  a 
struggle  which  was  for  Napoleon  the  beginning  of  the 
Odyssey  that  was  to  terminate  in  St.  Helena,  Spain  awoke 
to  the  revolution  that  had  been  effected  in  the  social  and 
political  order  of  the  world,  and  took  the  part  in  it  which 
belonged  to  her. 

A  Congress  was  elected  and  Cuba  was  not  forgotten  by 
the  Government.  Cuba  had  its  representatives  in  the  first 
Spanish  Cortes,  and  in  this  fact  a  principle  of  justice  and 
an  eminently  liberal  spirit  are  to  be  recognized,  which 
were  shown  by  no  other  nation. 

The  restrictive  policy  of  1836  deprived  the  Antilles  of 
this  right  and  of  the  enjoyment  of  many  other  liberties, 
producing  in  the  Island  the  first  feeling  of  dissatisfaction 
with  the  mother  country. 

Then  followed  a  period  of  difficulty  in  the  development 
of  the  social  and  political  life  of  Spain,  characterized,  in 
regard  to  her  colonial  policy,  by  an  indecision  in  every  act 
that  might  change  the  manner  of  life  of  the  colony,  and 
in  her  political  conduct  by  a  disregard  of  former  codes  and 
laws,  a  policy  which  produced  among  the  Cubans,  as  a 
natural  consequence,  the  discontent  which  engendered  in 

— 109  — 


some  of  them,  influenced  by  the  recent  examples  of  inde- 
pendence on  the  continent,  selfish  desires  and  ambitious 
hopes. 

For  this  reason  various  attempts  were  made  at  revolu- 
tion at  that  period,  but  these  were  always  isolated  and 
were  suppressed  in  time,  rather  because  the  country  in 
general  enjoyed  a  prosperity  which  was  not  enjoyed  by 
the  continental  republics,  and  did  not  sympathize  with  the 
revolutionary  movements,  than  because  of  the  ability  of 
her  Governors. 

And  in  fact  the  population  of  the  Island,  which  was 
170,000  in  1774,  had  increased  in  1860 — less  than  a  century 
—to  1,200,000. 

The  trade  of  the  Island,  from  $15,000,000  in  imports 
and  $13,000,000  in  exports  in  1826,  had  increased,  the 
former  to  $43,500,000,  and  the  latter  to  $57,500,000;  that 
is  to  say,  a  commercial  movement  of  $101,000,000,  or  $85 
per  capita  annually. 

In  1862  the  total  value  of  the  plantations  and  stock  of 
the  Island  amounted  to  $380,554,527;  thus  the  public  ex- 
penses were  covered  with  the  greatest  facility,  the  prin- 
cipal sources  of  revenue  being  the  2  per  cent,  tax  on  the 
rents  or  net  produce  of  rural  real  estate;  4  per  cent,  on 
urban  real  estate,  various  small  taxes  and  the  customs, 
subject  to  a  tariff  which  was  highly  defective,  but  which 
nevertheless  produced  to  the  public  treasury  from  16  to 
35  per  cent,  ad  valorem  on  imports. 

At  this  time  not  only  was  there  no  public  debt,  but 
there  was  a  surplus  fund  of  two  or  three  millions  in  the 
treasury,  and  for  some  few  years  Cuba  contributed  an 
equal  amount  to  the  national  revenue. 

This  latter  fact,  which  the  insurgent  propagandists  have 
loudly  proclaimed,  and  often  with  exaggeration,  need 
cause  no  surprise  when  we  consider  that  Cuba,  from  1493 
to  1823,  was  a  source  of   expense  to  the  national  treasury; 

—  110  — 


that  is  to  say,  that  its  budget  of  expenditures  was  greater 
than  that  of  its  revenues,  so  that  Spain  had  to  supply  the 
deficiency. 

And  finally,  for  public  instruction  there  were  eighteen 
high  schools  and,  between  public  and  private,  468  lower 
schools,   with  an  attendance  of  20,000  pupils. 

At  this  time  the  Revolution  of  September,  1868,  took 
place  in  Spain,  and  with  it  a  change  in  the  institutions  of 
the  country,  and  a  very  radical  one  in  the  principles  of  the 
Government. 

At  the  same  time  another  revolution  broke  out  in  Cuba, 
with  the  cry  of  independence,  which  was  as  inopportune 
as  it  was  fatal  to  the  destinies  of  Cuba. 

This  revolution,  which  a  year  before,  when  there  were 
as  yet  no  hopes  of  reform,  might  have  been  justifiable,  for 
it  would  have  been  the  outbreak  of  a  people  who  could 
endure  no  longer  the  unjustifiable  and  seemingly  inter- 
minable state  of  tutelage  in  which  it  was  kept,  occurring  at 
this  period  of  national  evolution  proves  how  lacking  both 
in  political  wisdom  and  in  patriotism  were  its  leaders. 

Plunged  at  once  into  a  civil  war  which  lasted  for  ten 
years,  all  hope  of  the  reforms  which  the  Island  would  have 
had  immediately,  if  the  war  had  not  broken  out,  was  cut 
off,  and  that  war  was  at  the  same  time  highly  prejudicial 
to  the  development  of  a  broad  and  liberal  policy  in  Porto 
Rico. 

In  spite  of  this,  however,  when  in  1869  the  Cortes  of  that 
year  was  elected  on  the  basis  of  universal  suffrage,  this 
right  was  granted  to  the  people  of  Porto  Rico,  and,  making 
use  of  it,  they  sent  their  Deputies  to  the  Spanish  Cortes. 

At  the  same  time  the  Constitution  of  the  State  was  ex- 
tended to  that  Island. 

Provincial  Assemblies  were  organized  with  powers  to 
make  and  vote  the  Budgets  of  the  Island  for  the  depart- 
ments of  public  instruction,  public  works  (public  improve- 
ments in  general)  and  other  departments,  besides  having 

—  111  — 


the  inspection  of  the  municipalities,  which,  according  to- 
the  municipal  law,  extending  also  to  Porto  Rico,  were 
organized  on  the  basis  of  a  popular  vote  and  presided 
over  by  Mayors  elected  by  the  people  ;  and  slavery  was 
abolished. 

That  is  to  say  that  Porto  Rico  entered,  at  the  same 
time  with  the  Peninsular  provinces,  on  the  enjoyment  of 
the  new  political  and  civil  life  which  was  being  developed 
in  Spain. 

Thus,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  but  for  the  war 
of  insurrection  the  Spanish  Government  would  have  ex- 
tended to  Cuba  the  same  liberties  and  guarantees  which  it 
conferred  on  Porto  Rico. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  also  certain  that  had  it  not  been 
for  the  Cuban  insurrection  Porto  Rico  would  not,  five 
years  later,  have  been  deprived  of  those  rights  until  the 
Cuban  war  should  terminate. 

I  think  I  have  demonstrated  that  the  leaders  of  that 
movement  either  sought  in  it  the  gratification  of  personal 
ambition,  rather  than  the  happiness  of  their  country,  or 
else  showed  a  lack  of  political  wisdom  which,  had  the  in- 
surrection triumphed,  would  have  been  even  more  fatal  to 
the  destinies  of  Cuba  than  the  loss  of  the  thousands  of 
lives  and  the  millions  of  dollars  which  the  war  entailed. 

The  war  lasted  ten  years  and  terminated  with  a  capitu- 
lation in  which  amnesty  for  past  offenses  was  proclaimed ; 
and  it  was  declared  that  there  were  neither  victors  nor 
vanquished ;  the  Government  promised  a  liberal  rule,  and 
the  country,  as  Seiior  Cabrera,  of  Havana,  well  says  in 
one  of  his  interesting  works,  wearied  and  impoverished, 
sought  consolation  in  hopes  of  the  future. 

In  regard  to  the  treaty,  as  it  was  signed,  and  to  the 
demands  made  by  the  rebels,  many  inexact  statements 
have  been  published. 

One  of  these  statements  was  made  by  an  American 
General,  who  desired  to  give  it  the  weight  or  authority  of 

—  112  — 


his  name,  because  he  had  fulfilled  a  diplomatic  mission 
from  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  that  of 
Spain  twenty  or  twenty-five  years  ago. 

The  General  referred  to  stated  in  a  newspaper  article 
that  peace  was  made  on  the  basis  of  autonomy  for  Cuba,, 
than  which  nothing  could  be  more  untrue,  as  the  political 
idea  of  this  system  of  Government  for  Cuba  had  not  been 
conceived  until  after  the  pacification  of  the  Island. 

Seilor  Enrique  Collazo,  one  of  the  insurgent  leaders,  in 
his  work  "  From  Yara  to  Zanjdn,"  referring  to  the  willing- 
ness of  the  insurgents  to  accept  peace,  speaks  as  follows : 

"  Consequently  a  meeting  of  the  leaders  and  officers  was 
convoked,  and  the  question  being  discussed  it  was  resolved 
to  put  it  to  a  vote,  for  which  purpose  the  forces  and  the 
people  in  the  encampment  were  assembled,  and  Brigadier 
Rafael  Rodriguez  explained  clearly  to  them  the  situation 
and  the  object  regarding  which  they  were  consulted.  '  A 
vote  is  to  be  taken  to  decide  on  the  acceptance  of  peace 
or  the  continuance  of  war,'  he  said.  '  Let  those  who 
desire  the  latter  leave  the  ranks  and  form  in  front;  let 
those  who  desire  peace  remain  in  their  places. '  Not  one 
left  Ids  place.  The  votes  of  the  officers  were  taken  in 
writing  by  the  same  Brigadier  Rodriguez,  and  the  Briga- 
dier Benitez  and  two  other  chiefs  were  the  only  ones  who 
voted  for  war." 

The  propositions  presented  to  General  Martinez  Campos 
by  the  committee  appointed  by  the  rebels  to  treat  for  peace 
were  the  following: 

First — Assimilation  of  the  Spanish  Provinces,  with  the 
exception  of  conscription. 

Second — General  amnesty  for  political  offenses  committed 
since  1868  up  to  the  present  time  (1878)  for  those  who  are  under 
direct  indictment  or  serving  sentences  within  or  without  the 
Island.  K  general  pardon  to  deserters  from  the  Spanish  army, 
without  distinction  of  nationality ;  this  clause  to  be  extended 
to  all  who  have  taken  part,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  revo- 
lutionary movement. 

—  113  — 


Third — Freedom  for  the  slaves  and  Asiatic  coolies  now  in 
the  insurgent  ranks. 

Fourth — No  individual  who,  by  virtue  of  this  capitulation, 
shall  submit  to  and  remain  under  the  authority  of  the  Span- 
ish Government  shall  be  compelled  to  render  military  ser- 
vice of  any  kind  until  peace  be  established  throughout  the 
Island. 

Fifth — Anyone  who  may  desire  to  leave  the  Island  shall 
be  allowed  to  do  so  and  be  furnished  with  the  means  there- 
for, without  passing  through  any  town,  if  he  shall  so  desire. 

Sixth — As  a  guarantee  to  our  party  we  request  that  Gen- 
eral Martinez  Campos  shall  hold  the  civil  and  political  com- 
mand of  the  Island  for  at  least  one  year  after  the  conclusion 
of  peace  and  the  establishment  of  the  reforms  consequent  on 
this  agreement. 

Seventh — The  capitulation  of  each  force  shall  take  place 
in  an  uninhabited  spot,  where  the  arms  and  other  munitions 
of  war  shall  have  been  previously  deposited. 

Eighth — In  order  to  further  the  acceptance  of  these  con- 
ditions by  the  insurgents  of  the  other  departments,  the  Com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  Spanish  Army  shall  furnish  them  free 
transportation  by  land  or  sea,  over  all  the  lines  within  his 
control,  to  the  Central  Department. 

Ninth — The  pact  made  with  the  Central  Committee 
shall  be  deemed  to  have  been  made  with  all  the  departments 
of  the  Island  which  shall  accept  these  conditions. 

The  text  of  the  treaty,  as  it  was  accepted  by  the  insur- 
;gents  and  signed  by  the  commissioners,  is  as  follows : 
Capitulation  of  Zanjon. 

The  people  and  the  armed  forces  of  the  Central  Depart- 
ment and  the  armed  groups  from  other  departments  having 
met  in  convention,  as  the  only  fit  means  of  terminating  in 
•one  sense  or  another  the  pending  negotiations,  and  having 
considered  the  propositions  submitted  by  the  Commander-in- 
chief  of  the  Spanish  Army,  determined  on  their  part  to  pro- 
pose amendments  to  said  propositions  by  presenting  the 
following  articles  of  capitulation  : 

Article  I. — The  political,  organic  and  administrative  laws 
•enjoyed  by  Porto  Rico  shall  be  established  in  Cuba. 

Art.  II. — Free  pardon  for  all  political  offenses  committed 
from  1868  to  date  (1878)  and  freedom  for  those  who  are  under 
-indictment  or  are  serving  sentences  within  or  without  the 
Island.     Amnesty  to  all  deserters  from  the   Spanish  army, 

—  114  — 


regardless  of  nationality;  this  clause  being  extended  to 
include  all  those  who  have  taken  part,  directly  or  indirectly, 
in  the  revolutionary  movement. 

Art.  III. — Freedom  for  the  Asiatic  coolies  and  for  the 
slaves  who  may  be  in  the  insurgent  ranks. 

Art.  IV. — No  individual,  who  by  virtue  of  this  capitulation 
shall  submit  to  and  remain  under  the  authority  of  the  Spanish 
Government,  shall  be  compelled  to  render  any  military  service 
before  peace  be  established  over  the  whole  territory. 

Art.  V. — Every  individual,  who  by  virtue  of  this  capitula- 
tion may  wish  to  depart  from  the  Island,  shall  be  permitted  to 
do  so,  and  the  Spanish  Government  shall  provide  him  with 
the  means  therefor,  without  passing  through  any  town  or 
settlement,  if  he  so  desires. 

Art.  VI. — The  capitulation  of  each  force  shall  take  place  in 
some  uninhabited  spot,  where  the  arms  and  other  munitions 
of  war  shall  be  previously  deposited. 

Art.  VII. — In  order  to  further  the  acceptance  by  the  insur- 
gents of  the  other  departments  of  these  articles  of  capitula- 
tion, the  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Spanish  Army  shall 
furnish  them  free  transportation  by  land  or  sea,  over  all  the 
lines  within  his  control,  to  the  Central  Department. 

Art.  VIII. — This  pact  of  the  committee  of  the  Central 
Department  shall  be  deemed  to  have  been  made  with  all  the 
departments  of  the  Island  which  may  accept  its  conditions. 

Encampment  of  St.  Augustin,  February  10,  1878. 

Rafael  Rodriguez,  Secretary.  E.  L.  Luaces. 

As  the  liberties  enjoyed  by  Porto  Rico  were  very 
limited,  the  suffrage  having  been  taken  from  it,  and  the 
powers  of  the  Provincial  Assembly  and  of  the  municipal- 
ities having  been  restricted,  the  liberties  on  the  enjoyment 
of  which  Cuba  could  enter,  in  virtue  of  this  treaty,  were 
very  few. 


—  115 


III. 


The  war  being  terminated,  in  virtue  of  the  pact  referred 
to,  in  1878,  poHtical  parties  were  organized. 

The  majority  of  the  Peninsular  Spaniards  united  to 
form  the  "  Union  Constitucional  "  party,  whose  platform 
was  based  on  "unification  "  as  a  form  of  government;  that 
is  to  say,  the  same  laws  and  administrative  methods  for  the 
Antilles  as  for  Spain.  In  practice  this  party  had  been 
retrogressive;  opposed  systematically  to  all  political  re- 
form, and  always  aiming  at  supremacy  over  the  Spanish 
authorities.  But  it  has  been  seen  that  a  policy  of  sus- 
picion and  dislike  toward  the  Cubans  is  not  the  one  most 
conducive  to  the  maintenance  of  peace,  and,  in  reality, 
this  policy  has  done  more  to  prejudice  the  Spanish  cause 
than  all  the  secessionists  and  anti-Spaniards  ever  known. 

In  opposition  to  this  party  the  Autonomist  party  was 
formed,  composed  of  the  Cubans  who  were  opposed  to 
the  revolution  that  had  just  terminated,  or  who  had  be- 
longed to  it. 

These  parties  were  antagonistic,  rather  because  of  the 
accumulated  resentment  and  suspicion  engendered  by  the 
ten  years'  war  than  because  of  abstract  principles,  and 
the  Autonomists  had  to  enter  on  a  titanic  struggle  to 
counteract  the  policy  of  the  Conservative  party  and  to 
maintain  a  direct  intervention  in  the  politics  of  the 
countr}\ 

This  struggle  was  a  hard  one,  not  only  because  of  the 
partiality  almost  invariably  shown — up  to  three  years  ago 
— by  the  Government  in  Madrid  to  the  Conservative 
party,  but  also  because  of  the  lack  of  civic  qualities  in  the 
generality  of  the  Cuban  people,  who  have  neither  the  edu- 
cation nor  the  character  necessary  to  obtain  by  diplomatic 
means  the  liberties  which  they  desire. 

—  116  — 


The  separatists,  who  are  unaware  of  their  own  defects, 
and  who  forget  those  of  their  countrymen  when  they  bring 
charges  against  Spain,  will  be  indignant  with  the  Cuban 
who  says  this,  but  it  is  nevertheless  the  exact  truth. 

Educated  abroad,  outside  the  atmosphere  of  Cuban  poli- 
tics, when  I  returned  to  the  Antilles  I  was  able  to  study 
the  political  and  social  life  of  the  Cubans  and  Porto  Ricans, 
as  well  as  the  colonial  policy  of  Spain,  unbiased  by  preju- 
dice ;  and  I  have  invariably  observed  that  for  the  evils  of 
which  my  countrymen  complain,  and  for  which  they  blame 
the  Government,  they  are  themselves  in  a  large  ineasure 
responsible. 

The  Cuban  people,  like  every  other  people  that  has  not 
been  educated  to  use  its  rights  and  that  is  ignorant  of  its 
duties,  has  always  supposed  that  it  was  the  mission  of  the 
Government  to  confer  upon  the  people  the  liberties  which 
they  desire,  without  waiting  even  to  be  asked  for  them ; 
and  thus  it  has  in  general  remained  almost  indifferent  to 
the  most  important  acts  of  modern  politics;  often,  through 
a  base  self-interest,  using  its  political  rights  in  a  manner 
opposed  to  its  own  convictions. 

The  "  Union  Constitucional "  party  has  sent  many  Depu- 
ties to  Madrid  to  work  against  the  concession  to  Cuba  of 
the  liberties  asked  by  her,  supported  by  the  suffrage  of  many 
Cubans  who  gave  their  votes  through  mercenary  consid- 
erations and  against  their  own  feelings.  I  do  not  say 
opinions,  because  the  nameless  masses  who  vote  for  the 
sake  of  voting,  in  Cuba  the  same  as  in  the  United  States 
and  everywhere  else,  have  no  political  convictions. 

Owing  to  this  lack  of  consistency  the  Autonomist  party 
had  to  struggle  both  against  the  opposition  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  intrigues  of  the  opposite  party,  while  it  was 
at  the  same  time  badly  seconded  by  the  Cubans  them- 
selves, who  were  most  deeply  interested  in  the  spread  of 
the  political  doctrines  of  the  party.  The  fact  also  that 
the  Autonomist  party  had  taken  no  share  in  the  national 

—  117    —      . 


party  politics  was  highly  prejudicial  to  it,  for,  as  a  result, 
none  of  the  political  parties  of  Spain  had  any  interest  in 
the  triumph  of  the  Autonomist  Deputies. 

An  attitude  of  political  unity  with  some  one  of  the 
liberal  national  parties  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
highly  favorable  to  the  establishment  of  the  reforms,  and 
even  of  autonomy,  in  the  Island. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  difficulties  and  drawbacks  in 
the  way  of  a  really  practical  policy,  since  the  conclusion 
of  the  peace  of  Zanjon  (1878),  which  was  obtained  with- 
out compromising  liberties  already  enjoyed  (since  Porto 
Rico  had  lost  them  in  1874),  down  to  1895,  the  following 
reforms  were  obtained : 

Abolition  of  slavery. 

Promulgation  of  the  Constitution  in  force  in  Spain,  by 
which  the  people  of  Cuba  enjoy  the  same  rights,  whatever 
may  have  been  the  place  of  their  birth,  as  those  in  the 
Peninsular  Provinces. 

The  insurgent  propagandists  and  their  North  American 
sympathizers  have  often  asserted  that  the  Cubans  have 
neither  inviolability  of  the  domicile  nor  freedom  of  loco- 
motion, nor  of  the  press,  npr  of  speech,  and  so  on.  All 
this  is  absolutely  untrue. 

Until  a  year  ago,  when  the  insurrection  broke  out,  the 
country  was  occupied  by  a  military  force,  as  was  natural 
and  is  the  case  in  every  country;  all  the  liberties  enjoyed 
in  Spain  were  enjoyed  there — the  same  liberties,  social  and 
political,  as  are  enjoyed  by  the  French,  the  Belgians,  the 
Germans,  &c. 

By  virtue  of  this  Constitution  no  Cuban  may  be  impris- 
oned except  on  the  order  of  a  judge,  the  accused  being 
either  indicted  or  set  at  liberty  within  seventy-two  hours 
after  his  arrest. 

Every  Cuban  has  the  right : 

To  express  freely  his  views  and  opinions,  orally  or  in 
writing,  without  being  subject  to  the  official  censorship 

—  118  — 


which  existed  up  to  the  time  of  the   promulgation  of  this 
law. 

Thus  in  Cuba,  as  a  proof  that  the  exercise  of  this  right 
is  enjoyed,  separatist  newspapers  and  reviews  supporting 
and  defending  the  platform  of  Cuban  independence  have 
been  published ;  as,  for  example,  the  separatist  newspaper 
La  Protesta,  of  Havana;  the  review  Hojas  Literarias, 
which  was  published  up  to  January,  1895, 'and  which  was 
devoted  to  the  separatist  propaganda,  and  others. 

Another  equally  false  charge  which  has  been  made  is  that 
concerning  freedom  of  locomotion :  ' '  No  freedom  of  lo- 
comotion," and  the  pamphleteer  adds:  "  No  man,  woman 
or  child  can  travel  from  home  unless  provided  with  a 
license  costing  annually  from  25  cents  to  $50;  otherwise 
he  is  arrested;  even  beggars  are  not  exempt  from  this 
tax. " 

If  it  were  not  because  there  are  many  simple-minded 
people  who  believe  this  sort  of  fairy  tales  I  should  not 
have  mentioned  this  absurd  statement,  with  which  it  is 
sought  to  influence  the  public  mind,  counting  on  the 
ignorance  and  credulity  of  the  majority. 

In  Spain,  the  same  as  in  other  European  countries,  the 
identification  of  the  individual  is  facilitated  by  means  of  a 
document  signed  by  the  Mayor  or  local  authority,  contain- 
ing the  personal  description  or  affiliation  of  the  person  con- 
cerned, together  with  his  signature.  This  document  was 
presented  in  cases  in  which  doubt  might  arise  regarding 
the  identity  of  the  individual ;  as,  for  example,  in  collect- 
ing a  debt,  obtaining  letters  directed  ' '  poste  restante, "  and 
in  all  legal  matters.  This  document  became  subject  to 
a  tax,  and  then  its  presentation  was  required  in  all  civil 
and  political  acts;  but  the  document  is  not  extended  to 
minors,  and  the  quota 'is  so  small  (a  workman  pays  25 
cents,  a  professional  man,  a  physician,  lawyer,  &c.,  $2 
'  annually)  that  it  will  be  at  once  seen  is  no  very  great 
pecuniary  sacrifice. 

—  119—     • 


As  for  the  assertion  that  no  one  can  travel  without  this 
document,  it  is  absurd ;  precisely  because  it  is  required  only 
on  rare  occasions  no  one  carries  it  about  with  him.  I  have 
traveled  alone  a  great  deal,  both  on  horseback  and  in  a  car- 
riage, and  no  official  has  ever  asked  for  this  document, 
nor  could  I  have  been  arrested  for  not  carrying  it,  as  this 
is  specially  provided  against  by  a  Royal  Decree  relating  to 
personal  certificates,  as  they  are  called. 

To  continue  the  enumeration  of  the  rights  acquired  since 
1878: 

The  right  of  association. 

Of  assembly  and  of  holding  political  or  other  meetings. 

The  electoral  right  was  also  obtained,  this  privilege 
having  been  extended  to  every  taxpayer  whose  taxes 
amount  to  $5  annually,  the  various  sources  from  which 
such  taxes  are  derived  being  cumulative.* 

Provincial  Assemblies  were  organized  for  the  inspection 
of  municipal  accounts,  charities  and  public  works  of  a 
secondary  character.  It  is  true  that  these  assemblies  have 
given  only  a  negative  result,  owing  to  their  having  been 
established  under  the  same  conditions  as  exist  in  the  Penin- 
sula ;  but  this  failure  has  only  shown  how  impracticable  the 
unification  theory  is  in  certain  cases,  and  has  fully  justified 
the  advocates  of  decentralization,  particularly  for  the  Island 
of  Cuba. 

A  municipal  law  was  also  promulgated  for  the  creation 
of  municipalities. 

The  tribunals  of  justice,  classified  as  Inferior  (municipal), 
Superior  and  Supreme  Courts,  are  sufficiently  well  dis- 
tributed for  the  satisfactory  administration  of  justice. 

The  same  Civil  Law  in  force  in  the  Peninsula  was  pro- 
claimed. 

The  same  Commercial  Code  and  Law  of  Mortgages. 

Registry  and  Civil  Marriage. 

*  See  page  78. 

—  120  - 


The  same  Penal  Laws  as  obtain  in  the  Peninsula. 

In  regard  to  higher  public  education,  liberty  of  instruc- 
tion was  proclaimed,  by  virtue  of  which  studies  may  be 
conducted  privately,  it  being  sufficient  to  take  the  regular 
college  examinations  to  receive  a  Degree. 

Here,  briefly  outlined,  are  the  principal  reforms  ob- 
tained by  Cuba,  and  which  practically  placed  the  Cuban 
people  in  possession  of  all  the  rights  attached  to  Spanish 
citizenship. 

If  it  be  true  that  the  genuinely  Cuban  representation  in 
Congress  has  been  but  scant,  and  Cuban  intervention  in 
the  provincial  and  municipal  administration  only  limited, 
this  is  not  ow;ing  alone  to  the  partiality  of  the  Government 
for  the  Conservatives,  but  is  also  due  to  the  little  civic 
spirit  shown  by  the  majority  of  the  people  in  making  use 
of  their  rights.  In  those  districts  where  the  majority  of 
the  people  have  manifested  greater  interest  and  enthusi- 
asm in  using  their  political  rights  the  Autonomists  have 
had  a  majority  in  the  municipalities  and  in  the  Provincial 
Assemblies,  and  have  sent  their  Deputies  to  the  Cortes. 

For  example : 

The  representation  in  the  Cortes  of  the  Province  of 
Puerto  Principe  has  always  been  Autonomist  since  1879. 

Half  of  the  representation  of  the  Province  of  Santiago 
de  Cuba,  and  also  of  Santa  Clara,  has  been  Autonomist. 

The  Provincial  Assemblies  of  Santa  Clara,  Santiago  de 
Cuba  and  Puerto  Principe  have  had  a  Liberal  majority,  and 
many  town  councils  (as  that  of  Sancti  Spiritus),  have  been 
almost  entirely  Autonomist. 

The  following  is  the  platform  of  the  Cuban  Liberal  or 
Autonomist  party,  organized  August  9,  1878,  six  months 
after  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  of  Zanjdn : 

Social  Question. 

The  exact  fulfillment  of  Article  21  of  the  Moret  Law, 
in  its  first  clause,  which  says :  ' '  The  Government  shall  lay 
before  the  Cortes,  as  soon  as  the  Cuban  Deputies  shall  have 

—  121  —    , 


been  admitted  into  it,  the  plan  of  a  law  of  indemnified 
emancipation  of  those  who  may  remain  in  slavery  after  the 
promulgation  of  this  law. "  Simultaneous  regulation  of  free 
colored  labor,  and  the  moral  and  intellectual  instruction  of 
the  freedman. 

White  immigration  exclusively,  preference  being  given  to 
that  of  families,  and  the  removal  of  all  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  Peninsular  and  foreign  immigration;  both  to  be  under- 
taken privately. 

Political  Question. 

Necessary  Liberties. — Extension  of  individual  rights  guar- 
anteed by  Title  1  of  the  Constitution :  to  wit,  freedom  of  the 
press,  of  meeting  and  of  association.  Right  of  petition. 
Also,  freedom  of  religion  and  of  instruction,  orally  and  in 
books. 

Admission  of  Cubans,  equally  with  other  Spaniards,  to  all 
public  offices  and  employments,  in  accordance  with  Article  15 
of  the  Constitution, 

Integral  application  of  the  municipal,  electoral  and  other 
organic  laws  of  the  Peninsula  to  the  Islands  of  Cuba  and 
Porto  Rico,  without  any  other  changes  than  those  demanded 
by  local  needs  or  interests,  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of 
the  pact  of  Zanjon. 

Fulfillment  of  Article  89  of  the  Constitution ;  the  particular 
system  of  Spanish  laws  being  understood,  which  shall  favor 
the  greatest  decentralization  possible  within  the  national 
unity. 

Separation  and  independence  of  the  civil  and  military 
powers. 

Application  to  Cuba  of  the  Penal  Code,  of  the  Law  of 
Criminal  Procedure,  of  the  Law  of  Mortgages,  of  that  of  the 
Administration  of  Justice,  of  the  most  recent  Commercial 
Code,  and  other  legislative  reforms,  with  such  modifications 
as  may  be  demanded  by  local  interests. 

Economic  Question. 

Abolishment  of  export  duties  on  all  the  products  of  the 
Island. 

Reformation  of  the  Cuban  tariff  in  the  sense  that  import 
duties  ■  shall  be  purely  fiscal ;  those  having  the  character 
of  differential  duties,  whether  specific  or  of  the  flag,  being 
abolished. 

Reduction  of  the  duties  paid  in  the  custom  houses  of  the 
Peninsula  on  Cuban  sugar  and  molasses  to  the  rate  of  fiscal 
duties. 

—  122  — 


Treaties  of  commerce  between  Spain  and  other  countries, 
particularly  the  United  States,  on  the  basis  of  the  most  com- 
plete reciprocity  of  the  tariff  between  them  and  Cuba,  the 
same  exemption  from  taxes  and  the  same  privileges  being 
conceded  to  the  products  of  other  countries  in  the  custom 
houses  and  ports  of  the  Island  as  they  concede  to  our  prod- 
ucts in  theirs. 

Havana,  August  1,  1878. 

This  important  document  was  signed  by  Jose  Maria 
Galvez,  Juan  Esportuno,  Carlos  Saladrigas,  Francisco  P. 
Gay,  Miguel  Bravo  y  Sentis,  Ricardo  del  Monte,  Juan 
Bruno  Zayas,  Jose  Eugenio  Bemal,  Joaquin  G.  Lebredo, 
Pedro  Armenteros  y  del  Castillo,  Emilio  I.  Lucas,  Anto- 
nio Govm  and  Manuel  Perez  de  Molina,  editor  of  El 
Triunfo. 

With  this  platform  the  Autonomist  party  began  a  double 
political  campaign,  in  the  mother  country  and  in  Cuba, 
with  the  result  that  in  1893  a  Minister  of  the  Crown,  Senor 
Maura,  presented  to  the  Cortes  a  plan  of  administrative 
reforms  which  constituted  a  radical  change  in  the  manner 
of  governing  the  Antilles  and  which  was  the  first  important 
step  in  political  evolution  toward  colonial  autonomy;  and 
in  Cuba  the  majority  of  the  Peninsular  Spaniards  separated 
from  the  uncompromising  party  called  Conservative,  and 
formed  another  liberal  party  with  the  name  of  Reformist, 
which  presented  the  following  platform : 

PLATFORM  OF  THE  REFORMIST  PARTY. 

Political  Question. 

Faithful  and  exact  observance  of  the  National  Constitution, 
which  recognizes  and  guarantees  individual  rights  and  pro- 
claims the  necessity  of  the  transatlantic  provinces  being 
governed  by  special  laws,  without  prejudice  to  the  authority 
which  it  confers  upon  the  Government  to  apply  to  the  same 
the  laws  promulgated  for  the  Peninsula,  with  such  modifica- 
tions as  it  may  deem  expedient,  holding  itself  responsible  to 
the  Cortes  therefor. 

Application  to  the  Island  of  all  the  laws  made,  or  which 
may  be  made,  in  the  Peninsula,  to  insure  mutual  respect  for 
the  rights  recognized  by  title  of  the  Constitution,  and  of  the 

—  123  — 


organic  laws,  without  any  other  modification  than  those 
which  may  be  indispensably  required  by  the  genius  or  the 
customs  of  the  people,  subject  to  the  before-mentioned  cri- 
terion of  special  legislation. 

Extension  of  the  right  to  elect  Deputies  to  the  Cortes,  Pro- 
vincial Assemblymen  and  Councilors  to  all  Spaniards  born 
and  residing  in  Cuba,  as  the  conditions  of  the  Island  may 
counsel  and  demand,  and  in  correspondence  with  the  institu- 
tions which  in  this  respect  obtain  in  the  Peninsula. 

Approbation  and  immediate  promulgation  of  the  law  laid 
before  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  on  the  5th  day  of  last  June, 
for  the  government  and  civil  administration  of  this  Island 
and  of  Porto  Rico. 

Without  prejudice  to  the  reforms  which  the  new  provincial 
organization  may  in  the  future  demand,  and  which  expe- 
rience may  advise,  the  Assembly  shall  have,  among  other 
powers,  that  of  approving  the  accounts  of  the  municipalities ; 
the  revision  and  interpretation  of  the  resolutions  of  those 
bodies  which  do  not  come  within  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of 
the  same,  and  other  matters  of  local  administration;  the 
right  of  appointing  and  removing  all  their  functionaries  and 
clerks;  jurisdiction  in  everything  relating  to  the  administra- 
tion and  encouragement  of  the  moral  and  material  interests  of 
the  Island,  without  prejudice  to  the  powers  of  the  Town 
Councils,  General  Government  or  Supreme  Government;  the 
power  of  issuing  decrees  of  a  general  and  obligatory  charac- 
ter for  the  whole  of  the  Island  in  regard  to  public  instruction, 
public  works,  establishment  of  banks  and  partnerships,  the 
making  of  loans  and  other  similar  matters ;  that  of  discussing 
and  proposing  to  the  General  Government  and  the  Supreme 
Government,  when  the  case  arises,  whatever  it  may  deem 
expedient  for  the  interests  of  the  Island,  and  which  is  not 
within  their  jurisdiction;  that  of  reporting  on  the  impo- 
sition of  new  taxes,  changes  in  existing  taxes  and  other 
measures  of  a  financial  character ;  and  that  of  proposing  to 
the  General  Government  the  creation,  change  or  abolishment 
of  any  local  impost. 

Constitution  of  the  General  Council  of  Administration,  with 
the  powers  conceded  to  it  by  the  plan  of  reforms  of  Seiior 
Maura,  that  part  of  it  relating  to  the  electoral  right  being 
especially  emphasized. 

Law  determining  the  powers  of  the  Governor  General  of 
the  Island,  his  responsibilities,  the  rank  and  personal  qualifi- 
cations necessary  for  his  appointment,  no  class  of  the  State 
being  excluded. 

—  124  — 


Law  relating  to  public  employees,  authorizing  the  entrance 
into  the  civil  professions  only  of  those  Spaniards  settled  in 
Cuba,  without  distinction  of  origin,  who  shall  have  the  neces- 
sary qualifications  therefor,  reserving  to  the  Supreme  Govern- 
ment the  appointment  of  chiefs  of  departments  and  chiefs  of 
the  provincial  officers,  the  remaining  appointments  being 
made  by  the  Governor  General. 

Examination  and  revision  of  the  accounts  pertaining  to  the 
Budget  of  the  Island  in  such  manner  as  to  expedite  their  set- 
tlement by  the  Bureau  of  Local  Administration. 

Economic  Question. 

Reorganization  of  the  departments  and  of  the  administra- 
tion and  reduction  of  the  public  expenditures. 

Immediate  abolition  of  the  Law  of  Commercial  Relations, 
until  such  time  as  free  trade  shall  be  established  with  the 
Peninsula. 

Reform  of  the  tariff,  until  a  purely  fiscal  tariif  is  reached, 
without  prejudice  to  the  legitimate  needs  of  the  Treasury; 
and  reform  also  of  the  custom  house  laws  and  >the  tariff 
commission. 

Abolition  of  the  duty  on  exports. 

Celebration  of  special  commercial  treaties  which  shall  reg- 
ulate the  relations  of  this  Island  with  foreign  countries. 

Revision  of  existing  treaties,  especially  of  that  made  with 
the  United  States,  in  order  to  obtain  favorable  conditions  for 
the  exportation  of  tobacco  and  free  it  from  the  disadvantages 
under  which  it  labors. 

Free  sale  of  tobacco  in  the  Peninsula  after  the  correspond- 
ing duties  have  been  paid. 

Total  abolishment  of  all  taxes  on  manufactured  tobacco. 

Abolishment  of  the  present  industrial  tax  on  sugar. 

Law  to  organize  agricultural  credit  on  terms  favorable  to 
the  encouragement  of  agriculture,  and  reform  of  the  Law  of 
Civil  Procedure  for  the  benefit  of  farms  held  in  partnership, 
in  order  to  facilitate  the  speedy  and  economical  division  and 
inscription  of  the  same. 

Definitive  liquidation  of  the  public  debt  and  such  readjust- 
ment thereof  aS  shall  diminish  its  interest  and  insure  the  re- 
duction to  an  annual  amount  compatible  with  the  public 
revenues  and  the  needs  of  the  country. 

Creation  of  a  well  ordered  monetary  system. 

Revision  by  a  special  court,  and  within  a  limited  period,  of 
the  documents  of  classification  of  pensioners,  and  a  new 
method  of    payment   of  the   same   which,    while   respecting 

—  125  — 


acquired  rights,  shall  at  the  same  time  permit  of  an  alleviation 
of  this  annual  charge  upon  the  Budget. 
Havana,  October  30,  1893.   • 

The  intrigues  of  the  remainder  of  the  uncompromising 
Spanish  party  of  Cuba,  who  combated  in  Congress  the 
plan  of  reforms,  resulted  in  delaying  the  passage  of  the 
Law  of  Reforms  for  the  Antilles  until  February,  1895,  and 
then  in  introducing  changes  which,  although  unimportant, 
caused  dissatisfaction  to  both  of  the  Liberal  Cuban  parties. 

But  the  very  fact  of  this  plan  of  reforms  having  been 
under  discussion  for  two  years  proves  that  if  the  Auto- 
nomist party  had  united  with  the  Liberal  party  of  the 
Peninsula,  the  latter  would  have  taken  a  more  active 
interest  in  the  adoption  of  the  reforms,  and  they  would 
have  become  a  law,  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  the 
Conservatives,  long  before  they  did,  and  probably  without 
the  changes  made  in  them  posteriorly. 

So  that,  to  repeat  what  I  have  already  said,  in  the  same 
way  as  the  lack  of  public  spirit  of  many  of  the  Cuban 
electors  in  neglecting  to  make  an  opportune  use  of  their 
political  rights,  or  in  using  them  to  the  prejudice  of  their 
country  for  mercenary  or  selfish  ends,  prevented,  on 
many  occasions,  liberal  Cubans  from  being  elected  Depu- 
ties to  the  Spanish  Cortes,  so  did  the  lack  of  political 
knowledge  or  judgment  of  some  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Autonomist  party  in  desiring  to  be  exclusively  regionists 
deprive  them  of  the  assured  support  of  any  of  the  national 
parties. 

IV. 

Having  reviewed  the  political  movement  of  Cuba,  I  will 
now  describe  briefly  its  state  of  culture,  and  then  proceed 
to  show  the  stage  of  material  progress  to  which  it  has  at- 
tained, comparing  this,  for  the  better  appreciation  of  the 
facts,  with  that  of  the  sister  countries  throughout  the  con- 
tinent which  are  to-day  independent  states. 

—  126  — 


The  civilization  of  the  Cuban  people  had  its  origin,  as  I 
have  already  said — adducing  in  support  of  the  statement 
the  authoritative  testimony  of  a  distinguished  American 
writer,  Mr.  A.  R.  Marshall — in  the  ancient  Laws  of  the 
Indies,  which  carried  to  America  all  the  science,  arts  and 
literature  of  Spain,  establishing  a  current  sympathy  and 
constant  interchange  in  the  sphere  of  intellectual  specu- 
lation among  all  the  Spanish  speaking  peoples. 

For  this  reason  it  is  that,  as  is  constantly  observed,  all 
the  South  Americans  are  familiar  with  the  domestic  habits 
of  the  Spanish  people  ;  that  when  they  go  to  Spain, 
whether  they  visit  the  great  cities  or  the  smallest  villages 
of  the  various  provinces  or  districts,  in  each  of  which  the 
usages,  customs  and  even  the  dialect  of  the  people  are 
different,  they  always  find  themselves  familiar  with  that 
particular  manner  of  life,  because  American  civilization 
is  in  reality  a  compound  of  the  heterogeneous  elements  of 
Iberian  civilization  characterized  by  the  marks  of  its  adap- 
tation to  a  different  environment,  and  having  also  its 
own  proper  characteristics,  which  are  more  or  less  dis- 
tinctly marked  in  American  civilization,  according  to  the 
influence,  that  is  to  say  the  grade,  of  civilization  of  the 
conquered  peoples. 

For  this  reason,  while  in  Mexico  and  Peru  European 
civilization  is  strongly  marked  by  the  traits  of  Aztec  and 
Inca  civilization,  respectively,  which  were  noteworthy,  in 
the  Antilles,  where  the  aboriginal  races  had  reached  only 
a  very  rudimentary  stage  of  civilization,  the  typical  char- 
acteristics of  Indian  life  are  now  only  observable  in  the 
name  of  some  place  or  in  the  origin  or  foundation  of  some 
custom  which  is  gradually  dying  out. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Peninsular  Spaniards  who  emi- 
grate to  Spanish  America  find  themselves  in  a  social  en- 
vironment so  exactly  resembling  their  own  that,  except  for 
the  physical  acclimatization,  they  scarcely  feel  the  change ; 
they  adapt  themselves  insensibly  to  the  new  environment, 

127-  ^e^t^^^^$i 

^''    Of  Til 5 
>  oar 


with  the  result  that  after  a  few  years  they  become  mem- 
bers of  the  Spanish- American  family,  a  thing  which  takes 
place  with  no  other  European  emigrants. 

In  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  the  grade  of  general  culture  is 
undoubtedly  higher  than  in  any  other  part  of  Spanish 
America,  because,  in  addition  to  the  fact  that  contact  with 
exterior  culture  is  facilitated  by  the  extent  of  their  coast 
line  relatively  to  the  area  of  the  country,  it  has  also  been 
favored  by  the  admirable  qualifications  of  the  greater  part 
of  the  people  for  the  assimilation  of  progressive  ideas. 

The  difference  which  I  have  noticed  has  also  been 
caused  in  part  by  the  circumstance  that  while  on  the 
continent  occupations  of  a  political  character  absorbed 
from  the  beginning  of  the  century  the  majority  of  the 
able  minds  that  might  have  employed  themselves  usefully 
in  other  elevated  intellectual  pursuits,  many  men  of  ability 
living  on  the  continent,  and  disinclined  for  the  disturbed 
and  dangerous  existence  on  which  those  countries  were 
entering,  emigrated  to  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico. 

In  a  short  work  like  the  present  it  would  be  impossible 
even  to  mention  the  names  of  all  the  notable  men  who, 
born  m  Cuba  or  outside  of  it,  have  contributed  in  the 
present  century  to  the  progress  of  the  Island,  I  will  en- 
deavor, however,  to  notice  briefly  the  most  noteworthy, 
in  order  to  give  an  idea  of  this  manifestation  of  the  culture 
of  the  country. 

I  will  mention  the  reverend  professor,  Father  Varela, 
who  introduced  modern  philosophy  into  the  schools  of 
Cuba  and  who  educated  many  Cubans  who  have  done 
honor  to  their  country. 

Prof.  Jose  de  la  Luz  Caballero,  of  Havana,  a  professor 
at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  the  translator  of  Volney  and  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Economic  Academy  of  Florence, 
author  of  various  works,  vice-director  of  the  Patriotic  Soci- 
ety, admitted  to  the  bar  in  1836,  a  member  of  the  Academy 
of  Letters  of  Barcelona,  &c. 

—  128  — 


Francisco  Arango  y  Parreno,  of  Havana,  admitted  to 
the  bar  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  he  went  to  Spain  as  the 
agent  of  the  MunicipaHty  of  Havana.  He  obtained  the 
administrative  reforms  of  1789-94.  He  was  commis- 
sioned by  Count  Montalvo  to  make  a  scientific  journey 
through  Prance  and  England  in  1793.  He  introduced  into 
Cuba  the  cultivation  of  sugar  cane  of  Tahiti,  and  pub- 
lished various  works  on  agriculture  and  commerce  and 
some  books  of  travels.  In  1815  he  crowned  his  labors  by  ob- 
taining from  the  mother  country,  in  spite  of  the  opposition 
of  the  monopolists,  the  right  of  free  trade  for  the  ports  of 
Cuba,  which  changed  completely  the  manner  of  life  of  the 
colony.  Baron  Humboldt  mentions  him  with  encomium 
in  his  works.  The  Spanish  Government  rewarded  his 
labors  for  his  country's  welfare,  conferring  upon  him  the 
title  of  Grandee  of  the  Kingdom. 

In  all  his  patriotic  enterprises  he  was  supported  by  Gov- 
ernor General  Luis  de  las  Casas,  whose  name  ought  also 
to  figure  among  those  of  the  men  who  have  most  con- 
tributed to  the  progress  of  the  Island. 

Jos6  Silverio  Jorrin,  of  Havana,  a  lawyer  by  profession, 
and  a  magistrate  of  the  courts  of  Havana  and  of  Burgos,  in 
Spain ;  author  of  various  works  on  history,  mathematics, 
political  economy  and  pedagogy;  translator  of  Tacitus; 
Deputy  to  the  Cortes  and  member  of  various  scientific  so- 
cieties, among  others  the  Historical  Society  of  New  York. 

]os6  Antonio  Saco,  of  Bayamo,  a  distinguished  states- 
man. Deputy  to  the  Cortes  several  times,  and  later  on  a 
revolutionist,  author  of  important  works  on  history  and 
social  science. 

Ramon  de  la  Sagra,  Director  of  the  Botanical  Garden  of 
Havana,  corresponding  member  of  the  Royal  Institute  of 
France,  and  author  of  Monumental,  Physical  and  Political 
History  of  Cuba,  which  was  translated  into  French  in  1844. 

General  Francisco  Albear  y  Lara,  of  Havana,  a  profes- 
sor in  the  School  of  Engineers  of  Guadalajara  (Spain)  in 

— 129  — 


1842  at  twenty-six  years  of  age,  and  sub-inspector  of  the 
School  of  Engineers  in  his  own  country  at  twenty-eight. 
He  died  six  years  ago,  after  having  superintended  the  con- 
struction of  the  aqueduct  of  Havana,  for  the  plan  of  which 
he  received  a  prize  at  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1878. 

Felipe  Poey,  an  eminent  naturalist,  who  for  his  works 
on  the  Cuban  flora  and  fauna  was  elected  corresponding 
member  of  the  Zoological  Society  of  London  and  the 
Entomological  Society  of  France.  It  may  be  added  that 
the  savants,  Cuvier  and  Valenciennes,  mention  him  in 
their  works  as  the  naturalist  who  has  contributed  most  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  natural  history  of  the  Antilles.  His 
great  work,  "Cuban  Icthyology,"  was  purchased  by  the 
Spanish  Government. 

As  it  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  the  merits  of  all 
the  Cubans  who  have  distinguished  themselves,  I  will 
notice  briefly  a  few  others  only. 

As  eminent  statesmen  and  political  economists,  prior  to 
the  revolution  of  1868:  The  Count  of  Pozos  Dulces; 
F.  T.  Rodriguez,  a  lawyer  by  profession,  and  also  a  pro- 
fessor in  the  University  of  Havana;  G.  de  Navarrete, 
Rector  of  the  Almshouse;  F.  T.  Balmaceda,  who  emigrated 
to  New  Granada,  and  who  was  appointed  by  that  Govern- 
ment its  Minister  to  Madrid;  Calixto  Bemal,  Portuondo, 
Millet,  Deputies  to  Cortes  ;  Jose  Guell  y  Rente,  a 
Senator  of  the  Kingdom  for  the  University  of  Havana, 
who,  while  in  Spain,  married  a  Princess  who  was  a 
sister  of  the  King,  Don  Francisco  de  Asis,  and  a  cousin 
of  Queen  Isabella  II.;  J.  R.  Betancourt,  Deputy; 
Thomas  Gener,  an  illustrious  Catalan,  and  Carlos 
Rodriguez  Batista,  who  was  Civil  Governor  of  Havana. 

Among  contemporaries  I  will  mention  the  most  note- 
worthy of  those  whose  names  occur  to  me;  R.  M.  de 
Labra,  a  lawyer  by  profession,  a  Senator  of  the  Kingdom 
and  an  eminent  statistician  and  pedagogue ;  Galvez,  the 
present  President  of  the  Autonomist  party ;  G.  Saladrigas, 

— 130  — 


ex-President  of  the  Provincial  Assembly  and  an  Autono- 
mist: A  Govm,  also  an  Autonomist  and  a  distinguished 
lawyer;  N.  Azcarate,  an  eminent  statesman  of  the  Spanish 
Republican  party;  R.  Fernandez  de  Castro,  an  Autono- 
mist Deputy  and  Commissioner  in  Madrid  of  the  Planters' 
Club;  E.  Terry,  Figueroa,  Eliseo  Giberga,  R.  Montoro,  all 
Deputies  and  distinguished  orators;  Suarez  Bruzon  and 
Conte,  Peninsulars  and  both  Autonomists.  The  Spanish 
Generals,  Serrano  and  Dulce,  whose  names,  as  her  Gov- 
ernors, Cuba  remembers  with  affection,  have  also  con- 
tributed to  the  cultivation  and  propagation  of  modern 
ideas. 

Among  university  professors  and  teachers:  Escobedo, 
Deputy  to  Cortes  in  1836;  A.  Guiteras,  the  translator  of 
Virgil;  J.  Fornaris,  Nicolas  Guiteras,  Rector  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Havana,  founder  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences 
of  New  Orleans,  and  Vice-President  of  the  Medical  Con- 
gress of  Washington,  and  many  others;  for  the  majority 
of  the  professors,  past  and  present,  of  the  university,  were 
born  in  Cuba,  as  was  the  present  Rector  of  the  University, 
Dr.  Joaquin  Lastres. 

Distinguished  engineers,  in  addition  to  Albear,  already 
mentioned:  Menocal,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  author 
of  a  plan  of  a  canal  for  Nicaragua ;  and  Portuondo,  colonel 
of  engineers,  professor  of  mathematics,  author  of  a  treat- 
ise on  architecture  which  is  used  at  the  present  time  as  a 
text  book  in  Spain,  and  Autonomist  Deputy  to  Cortes. 

Eminent  naturalists:  Jose  Velaro  y  Diaz  and  Carlos  de 
la  Torre,  the  latter  appointed  a  professor  in  the  University 
of  Havana  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  after  passing  a 
competitive  examination  in  Madrid. 

Writers  on  agriculture  :  Antonio  Bachiller  y  Morales; 
J.  F.  Balmaceda,  Alvaro  Reinoso,  Zayas,  &c.  Among 
those  who  have  most  contributed  to  the  encouragement  of 
Cuban  agriculture  may  be  mentioned  the  philanthropist, 
the  Count  of  Casa  More,  of  Colombia,  who   settled  at  an 

—  131  — 


early  age  in  Cuba,  and  there  amassed  a  fortune,  which  he 
devoted  to  the  estabUshment  of  a  practical  school  of  agri- 
culture, on  which  he  expended  over  $200,000. 

Among  the  philanthropists  of  Cuba  I  will  mention  the 
Abreu  family  of  Santa  Clara.  One  member  of  this 
family,  Doiia  Marta  Abreu  de  Estevez,  married  to  a  pro- 
fessor of  the  University  of  Havana,  Dr.  Luis  Estevez, 
also  a  Cuban,  maintains  public  schools,  a  dispensary  and 
an  almshouse;  she  has  constructed  public  lavatories  for 
the  poor,  a  beautiful  theatre  and  an  electric  plant  for 
lighting  the  city. 

Terry,  the  father  of  the  present  Autonomist  Deputy  of 
the  same  name,  bequeathed  to  the  city  of  Cienfuegos  a 
sum  of  money  for  the  erection  of  a  theatre,  the  construc- 
tion of  which  was  undertaken  by  his  son,  and  which  is 
now  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  Latin  America,  The 
proceeds  of  the  theatre  are  devoted  to  the  support  of  pub- 
lic schools. 

Among  the  poets  and  artists,  of  whom  there  have  been 
many,  the  following  are  most  generally  known :  Gertrudis 
Gomez  de  Avellaneda ;  Heredia,  author  of  the  famous  Ode 
to  Niagara ;  Placido,  Zenea,  Luaces,  Navarrete  and  others ; 
the  violinists,  Albertini  and  White,  both  of  whom  took 
first  prizes  in  the  Paris  Conservatoire;  Espadero,  pianist 
and  composer,  who  was  the  intimate  friend  of  Gottschalk, 
Cervantes,  Brindis  de  Salas  and  others. 

In  conclusion,  I  will  mention  the  names  of  some  other 
distinguished  Cubans,  who,  although  they  have  not  de- 
voted themselves  exclusively  to  the  advancement  of  their 
country,  are  yet  brilliant  ornaments  to  her,  and  prove  how 
easy  it  would  have  been  for  the  Cubans  to  make  them- 
selves prominent  in  the  Peninsula:  Senor  Abarzuza,  Min- 
ister of  the  Colonies  in  the  last  Liberal  Cabinet;  Osma, 
the  present  Under  Secretary  of  that  department ;  Francisco 
Lastres,  Vice-President  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  and 
a  lawyer  of  distinction.      The  present  Minister  of  War, 

—  132  — 


General  Azcarraga,  has  already  been  mentioned,  but  this 
illustrious  soldier  was  born  in  the  Philippine  Islands. 

General  Arderius,  however,  who  was  Governor  of  Ha- 
vana in  the  time  of  General  Martinez  Campos,  General 
Gonzales  Munoz,  Lono,  Rodriguez,  Barzon,  Bosch,  Gar- 
rich,  Godoy,  Zarco  del  Valle,  Genaro  de  Quesada,  De  Ez- 
peleta,  Ampudia,  Felix  Ferrer  and  Francisco  Acosta  are 
all  Cubans. 

When  a  country  with  hardly  a  million  and  a  half  of  in- 
habitants has  produced  in  such  abundance  intellect  of  so 
high  an  order  and  as  varied  as  distinguished,  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  the  civilizing  spirit  of  its  colonizers  has 
been  notable  and  beneficial;  and  that  we  may  be  justly 
proud  of  being  Spaniards,  although  we  may  have  had 
more  or  less  difficulty  in  realizing  our  political  ideals ;  for, 
after  all,  the  mother  country  also  has  had  her  political 
ideals,  as  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth  have  had  and  will 
always  have  theirs. 

V. 

From  the  beginning  to  the  middle  of  the  present  century 
the  population  of  Cuba  increased  but  little,  the  increase 
being  estimated  at  600,000  inhabitants,  or  an  average  of 
4  per  cent,  annually.  Of  the  total  population  in  1841 
(1,007,684)  600,000  were  colored,  a  third  being  free  and 
the  remainder  slaves. 

Comparing  the  figures  with  those  of  the  Census  of  1846, 
which  showed  a  colored  population  of  473,000  souls  (more 
than  half  the  population  of  the  Island),  of  which  150,000 
were  free,  it  is  noticeable  that,  while  the  population  as  a 
whole  increased,  the  colored  population  diminished,  and  the 
proportion  of  the  slave  population  to  the  free  diminished  also. 

This  increase  in  the  white  population,  with  a  simultaneous 
decrease  in  the  colored,  has  continued,  repeating  itself  in 
each  succeeding  census,  as  a  consequence  of  the  process 
which  foreigners  of  every  country  must   undergo,  whose 

— 133  —   . 


constitution  does  not  readily  adapt  itself  to  their  new- 
environment. 

According  to  the  Census  of  1877,  the  Island  had  a  popu- 
lation of  1,620,000.  The  increase  in  the  sixteen  years 
which  had  elapsed  from  1861  was  barely  an  average  of 
1  per  cent,  annually,  notwithstanding  the  long  period  of 
civil  war  through  which  the  Island  had  been  passing  since 
1868.  As  for  the  colored  population,  it  reached  a  total  of 
barely  538,000,  or  33  per  cent,  of  the  total  population. 

Finally,  the  last  census  (1887),  gives  a  total  of  1,681,000 
inhabitants,  only  528,000  being  colored,  30.6  per  cent,  of 
the  whole  population.  So  that  for  each  694  whites  there 
were  only  306  of  the  colored  race,  between  negroes  and 
mulattoes,  the  increase  in  the  population  during  the  de- 
cade being  1.65  per  cent,  annually. 

Taking  these  figures  as  a  basis,  I  think  it  may  be  safely 
assumed  that  the  population  of  the  Island  at  the  breaking 
out  of  the  present  insurrection — eight  years  having  passed 
since  the  publication  of  the  last  census  and  taking  the 
average  increase  which  the  above  numbers  show — was  not 
more  than  2,100,000,  nor  the  colored  population  more  than 
520,000, or 25  per  cent,  of  that  number;  that  is  to  say,  750 
whites  to  250  negroes,  mulattoes  and  Chinese.  These 
last,  according  to  the  Census  of  1887,  amounted  only  to 
43,811  in  the  whole  Island,  and  since  that  time  the  num- 
ber has  decreased  considerably. 

Comparing  these  data  with  the  same  data  in  relation  to 
the  Spanish-American  republics  we  shall  have  the  follow- 
ing proportion  for  the  sixty  years  between  1825-85 : 

Per  Cent. 
Pop.  in 
Country.  1825-30. 

1.  Argentine  Republic,     .         720,000 


2.  Porto  Rico,    . 

3.  Uruguay, 

4.  Cuba,     . 

5.  Bolivia, 

6.  Central  America, 

7.  Peru,      . 
a  Chili,     . 


200,000 
214,000 
703,000 
1,090,000 
1,700,000 
1,500,000 
1,650,000 

—  134  — 


Pop.  in 

of  increa.se 

1885-90. 

in  60  years. 

4,066,000 

406 

800,000 

300 

706.000 

230 

1,681,000 

140 

2,333,000 

114 

3,121,000 

084 

2,621,000 

075 

2,817,000 

070 

COUNTRY. 

Colombia  (to 

-day).       . 

Pop.  in 
1825-30. 

Pop.  in 

1885-90. 

4.000,000 

Per  Cent, 
of  increase 
in  60  years. 

9. 

Ecuador, 
Venezuela, 

1,272,000 
2,323,000 

068 

10. 

Mexico, 

7,200.000 

11,630,000 

067 

11. 

Paraguay, 

200,000 

839,000 

060 

Hayti  and 
Santo  Domingo, 

936,000 

Hayti.    . 

572.000 

Santo  Domingo,    . 

400,000 

004 

As  will  be  seen,  next  to  the  Argentine  Republic,  whose 
increase  in  population  has  been  considered  phenomenal, 
ranks  the  Island  of  Porto  Rico,  which  is  relatively  almost 
as  thickly  populated  as  Germany,  and  more  so  than  France. 
Next  comes  Uruguay,  in  which  the  conditions  are  very 
similar  to  those  in  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  then  Cuba ; 
none  of  the  other  republics  have  increased  as  much  in 
population  as  the  Spanish  Antilles;  and  in  the  Island  of 
Santo  Domingo,  in  which  the  black  race  predominates,  the 
increase  in  sixty  years  has  been  only  4  per  cent. 

The  following  diagram  shows  the  progressive  increase  of 
the  population  of  Cuba,  with  corresponding  percentage  as 
to  color: 

POPULATION   OF  CUBA. 


Total  898.752  inhabitants. 


In  1846. 


In  1861. 


In  1877. 


In  1887. 


In  1895. 


46.5  white.  53.5  colored. 

Total  1,396,470  inhabitants. 


57.2  white.  42.8  colored. 

Total  1.620.000  inhabitants. 


67  white.  33  colored. 

Total  1,681.000  inhabitants. 


69.4  white.  30.6  colored. 

Total  (estimated)  2,620,000  inhabitants. 

25  colored. 


75  white. 
—  135 


For  the  figures  which  follow  we  shall  take  as  authority 
the  Census  of  1887,  which  is  the  last  official  census  pub- 
lished. 

The  population  of  the  six  provinces  into  which  Cuba  is 
now  divided  is  as  follows: 


To  Square 

To  Square 
Mile. 

Inhabitants. 

Ril. 

Havana,           .... 

.     481,928 

56 

20 

Matanzas,       .... 

.     359,578 

42 

15 

Pinar  del  Rio, 

.     225,891 

15 

5^ 

Puerto  Principe,     . 

.       67.789 

02.1 

0.7 

Santa  Clara, 

.     374,122 

20.5 

7.4 

Santiago  de  Cuba, 

.     273.379 

7.8 

2.8 

As  will  be  seen,  the  two  most  thickly  populated  prov- 
inces are  Matanzas  and  Havana,  the  population  of  each 
of  which  is  relatively  greater  than  that  of  some  European 
states. 

The  province  which  has  the  largest  colored  population 
is  Matanzas,  the  proportion  being  forty-five  blacks  to  fifty- 
five  whites;  next  comes  Santiago  de  Cuba,  with  forty 
blacks  to  sixty  whites ;  that  which  has  the  least  being 
Puerto  Principe,  with  twenty  blacks  to  eighty  whites. 

Of  the  white  population  of  the  Island  more  than  a  third 
can  read  and  write,  while  of  the  colored  race  only  12  per 
cent,  have  attained  this  degree  of  intellectual  culture.  The 
provinces  in  which  the  highest  grade  of  education  exists  are 
Havana  and  Puerto  Principe,  in  which  for  every  100  inhabi- 
tants forty-seven  and  forty-four  among  the  whites,  and 
fifteen  and  twenty-eight  among  the  blacks,  respectively,  can 
read  and  write.  The  most  backward  is  Pinar  del  Rio,  in 
which  only  seventeen  whites  and  three  negroes  in  each  100 
inhabitants  can  read  and  write.  It  is  for  this  reason,  and 
not  because  the  Ethiopian  race  abounds  there  more  than 
in  other  provinces,  that  this  province  is  called  in  Cuba 
•'the  black  continent." 

In  none  of  the  Spanish-American  Republics  does  the 
number  of  inhabitants  who  can  read  and  write  reach  35 
per  cent. 

—  136  — 


Passing  on   to  classify  the  population  of  the   Island  in 
urban  and  rural,  we  shall  have  the  following'  figures : 


Havana,  . 
Puerto  Principe, 
Santiago  de  Cuba, 
Matanzas, 
Cienfuegos, 
Guanabacoa, 
Cardenas, 
Santa  Clara, 


TOWNS  OF  MORE  THAN  10,000  INHABITANTS. 

220,000 


41,000 
40,000 
38,000 
25,000 
23,000 
20,700 
16,000 


Sancti-Spiritu, 

15.000 

Sagua  la  Grande,     . 

12,000 

Guines,     .... 

11,000 

Trinidad, 

11,000 

Regla 

10,300 

San  Antonio  de  los  Banos, 

10,000 

Remedios, 

10,000 

Manzanillo, 

16.000 

TOWNS  OF  FROn  2,000  TO   10,000  INHABITANTS. 

Province  ok  Havana. 


Alquizar,    . 

Bejucal, 

Cano, 

Guira  de  Melena, 

Jaruco, 

Bolondron, 
Colon, 

Corral  Falso, 
Jovellanos, 


Consolaci6n  Sur, 
Guanajay, 


Abrens, 

Caibarien, 

Cartagena, 

Camajuani, 

Esperanza, 


Alto  del  Songo, 
Bayamo,     . 
Baracoa,     . 
Cobre, 


Ciego  de  Avila, 
Moron, 


2,000 
5,300 
2,000 
2,500 


Marianao,  . 
Madruga,  . 
San  Jose  de  las  Lajas, 
Santiago  de  las  Vegas, 


2,500     Vereda  Nueva, 
Province  ok  Matanzas. 


2,100 
5,900 
3.200 
5,000 


Palnaillas,  . 
Roque, 
Sabanilla,  . 
Union  de  Reyes, 


Province  ok  Pinar  del  Rio. 

.     2,000  I  Pinar  del  Rio,    . 
.     5,500  I  San  Juan  Martinez, 

Province  ok  Santa  Clara. 


3,000 

Placetas,    . 

4,000 

Palmira,    . 

2,000 

Santo  Domingo, 

2,500 

Santa  Isabel,     . 

4,000 

San  Juan  Teras, 

ok  Sa 

NTiAGO  DK  Cuba. 

2,500 

Gibara, 

7,800 

Guantanamo,     . 

4,900 

Holguin,    . 

5,000 

Victoria  Tunas, 

Province  of  Puerto  Principe. 
.     3,000   I   Nuevitas,  . 
.     4,000   I 


5,500 
3,500 
3,100 
5,000 
2,000 

2,800 
2,000 
8.000 
4,100 


6,500 
2,600 


4,500 
4,500 
2,800 
2,500 
2,300 


8,600 
7,300 
7,500 
4,555 


4,900 


Taking  the  above  figures  with  the  total  population  of 
each  province,    we  can  form    the   following   diagram,  by 

—  137—  • 


means  of  which  we  can  estimate  at  a  glance  the  proportion 
'that  exists  between  the  urban  and  the  rural  population: 

PROVINCE  OF  PORTO  PRINCIPE. 

Urban  population.  Rural  population. 


80.  20. 

PROVINCE  OF  HAVANA. 

68.8  31.2 

PROVINCE  OF  MATANZAS. 


38.5  61.5 

PROVINCE  OF  SANTA  CLARA. 


36.3  63.7 

PROVINCE  OF  SANTIAGO. 


34.5  65.5 

PROVINCE  OF  PINAR  DEL  RIO. 


17.4 


82.6 


AVERAGE  PERCENTAGE  FOR  THE  ISLAND. 

I  j^—i—ll— 

46.3  53.7 

Calculating  that  in  the  towns  of  less  than  10,000  inhab- 
itants half  of  the  able-bodied  male  population  is  employed 
in  agricultural  labors  or  in  occupations  connected  with 
agriculture,  we  shall  have  a  rural  population  of  1,000,000 
of  inhabitants  out  of  the  total  population  of  1,680,000, 
which  signifies  that  over  250,000  men  between  the  ages 
of  eighteen  and  sixty  are  employed  in  the  labors  of  the 
field. 

If  primary  instruction  is  not  so  widely  diffused  in  Cuba 
as  could  be  desired,  the  causes  for  it  may  be  found  in  the 
prejudices  of  the  authorities  and  the  lack  of  good  methods 
of  teaching,  and  also  in  the  fact  that  the  heads  of  families 
among  the  rural  working  classes  manifest  in  general  but 
little  disposition  to  send  their  children  to  school,  in  some 

—  138  — 


Per 

Cent. 
8 

Venezuela, 

Per 

Cent. 

4.5 

6 

Chili, 

4.1 

5 

Brazil, 

2.1 

4.7 

cases  through  ignorance  and  in  others  from  a  selfish  desire 
to  avail  themselves  of  their  children's  assistance  in  their 
labors. 

Taking  these  circumstances  into  consideration  the  fact 
that  35  percent,  of  the  population  can  read  and  write  is 
very  consoling. 

There  are  at  present  in  Cuba  over  1,300  primary  schools, 
with  a  total  attendance  of  83,000  pupils  ;  comparing  the 
number  of  pupils  who  attend  school  with  that  of  the  fol- 
lowing countries  we  shall  have  for: 

Uruguay, 

Argentine  Republic, 
Cuba, 
Mexico,    . 

The  University  of  Havana  has  enjoyed  for  many  years 
past  so  well  merited  a  reputation,  and  her  advanced 
methods  of  instruction  in  the  higher  branches  of  learning 
and  in  the  professions  are  so  generally  known,  that  I  deem 
it  unnecessary  to  bring  forward  facts  concerning  her. 

In  the  field  of  journalism,  which  also  serves  to  indicate 
the  degree  of  culture  of  a  country,  Cuba  has  no  reason  to 
envy  any  Latin- American  State. 

In  Cuba  170  periodicals  were  published  last  year; 
Havana,  with  a  population  of  220,000,  had  twenty  dailies, 
almost  all  of  them  advocates  of  some  political  doctrine, 
from  the  support  of  the  old  colonial  rule  to  that  of  the 
separatist  propaganda,  the  discussion  of  the  latter  question 
by  word  and  pen  having  been  authorized  by  a  special  De- 
cree of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Madrid.  The  same  city  has 
also  forty-four  semi-weekly  and  weekly  and  twenty-eight 
fortnightly  and  monthly  periodicals,  being  a  total  of  ninety- 
two  publications,  including  political,  technological  and 
literary. 

The  City  of  Mexico,  with  a  population  of  340,000,  has 
almost  the  same  number  of  periodicals  as  Havana  (ninety- 
six),  twenty  of  which  also  are  dailies. 

—  139  — 


"  11,000 

"  24,000 

"  28,000 

"  41,000 

"  49,000 

Buenos  Ayres,  with  three  times  the  population  of 
Havana,  has  only  161  periodicals. 

Caracas  has  a  greater  number  of  periodicals  than 
Havana  or  than  any  other  Spanish-American  city,  having 
forty-four  publications  for  a  population  of  80,000.  But 
Venezuela,  taken  as  a  whole,  has  fewer  than  Cuba. 

Comparing    Cuba    with    each   of   the   principal   South 

American  republics,  in  the  number  of  inhabitants  to  each 

publication  issued  in  it,  we  have  the  following: 

Cuba, .         1  per  each    9,050 

Uruguay, 
Venezuela, 
Mexico, 
Chili.     . 
Argentine  Republic, 

In  concluding  this  sketch  of  the  data,  which  indicates 
the  degree  of  a  country's  culture,  I  will  mention  briefly 
the  scientific  and  charitable  corporations  and  establish- 
ments in  Havana,  omitting  those  which  are  under  the 
exclusive  control  of  the  State : 

Academy  of  Medical  Sciences. 

Academy  of  Sciences  and  Letters. 

Dental  Academy. 

Seven  asylums  for  orphans,  the  aged  and  the  poor. 

Three  public  libraries,  besides  those  of  various  societies, 
which  are  open  to  the  public. 

Four  banks — the  Spanish  Bank,  the  Spanish  Colonial 
Bank,  the  Bank  of  Commerce  and  the  Agricultural  Bank, 
besides  various  savings  banks. 

The  Spanish  Club. 

Consultative  centres,  called  "colleges"  of  notaries, 
dentists,  notaries  public  and  attorneys. 

Three  companies  for  supplying  light  to  the  city — two  gas 
companies  and  one  electric  light  company. 

A  Conservatory  of  Music. 

High  Schools,  a  Male  Normal  School  and  a  Female 
Normal  School,  for  the  study  of  medicine ;    a  Professional 

—  140  — 


School  of  Painting  and  Sculpture  and  two  of  Arts  and 
Trades. 

An  Alms  House,  an  Insane  Asylum,  and  a  School  for 
Deaf  Mutes. 

Seven  Hospitals,  some  of  them  constructed  for  the  pur- 
pose according  to  the  newest  scientific  methods. 

Grammar  schools  in  all  the  wards. 

Institute  of  Vaccination. 

Chemical  and  Histo-Bacteriological  Laboratories,  both 
private  and  municipal. 

Registry  of  Intellectual  Property.     (Copyright.) 

Economic  Society  of  Friends  of  the  Country,  Anthro- 
pological Society,  Society  for  the  Protection  of  Children, 
Society  for  Clinical  Studies,  Odontological  Society,  and 
others. 

Seven  theatres,  among  them  the  well-known  Tacon  and 
Payret  Theatres. 

An  Institute  for  the  Treatment  of  Hydrophobia  and 
seventy-one  different  societies  for  purposes  of  instruction, 
entertainment,  charity  and  mutual  aid. 

The  above  facts  will,  I  think,  suffice  to  give  a  clear  idea 
of  the  social  and  political  condition  of  Cuba. 

VI. 

Cuba  has  at  the  present  time  a  complete  railroad  system 
in  the  Provinces  of  Matanzas  and  Havana;  a  well  developed 
system  in  those  of  Pinar  del  Rio  and  Santa  Clara,  and  one 
sufficiently  developed  to  connect  the  centres  of  population 
with  the  ports  in  those  of  Puerto  Principe  and  Santiago  de 
Cuba.  All  the  material  employed  by  the  railroad  com- 
panies is  American,  the  locomotives  being  generally  those 
manufactured  by  Baldwin,  of  Philadelphia,  which  make 
an  average  speed  of  30  miles  an  hour. 

The  first  railroad  was  established  in  Cuba  in  1836 — 
earlier   than  in  many  European  countries,  and  not  later 

—  141—  . 


A 


than  in  any  other  country  except  Belgium  and  the  United 
States.  There  are  at  present  in  operation,  open  to  the 
pubHc,  3,200  kilometres,  or  about  2,000  miles,  of  railroad, 
and  an  equal  length  devoted  to  private  service  connected 
with  the  public  roads  for  the  use  of  the  sugar  plantations. 
Among  the  Latin-American  countries  Cuba  holds  the  first 
place  in  extent  of  railroads,  in  proportion  to  extent  of 
territory,  the  third  in  their  extent  in  proportion  to  popula- 
tion, and  the  fourth  in  actual  extent. 

The  following  table  shows  the  length  of  the  railroads  in 
operation  in  South  America: 


Miles. 

Agentine  Republic,  . 

7,676 

Mexico. 

5,812 

Brazil. 

5,582 

Cuba, 

2,000 

Chili, 

1,682 

Uruguay, 

991 

Peru, 

883 

Guatemala, 

460 

Venezuela, 

282 

Colombia, 
Costa  Rica, 
Porto  Rico, 
Paraguay, 
Salvador, 
Nicaragua, 
Honduras, 
Ecuador, 
Santo  Domingo, 


Miles 

218 

161 

153 

152 

120 

90 

69 

56 

50 


Porto  Rico  holds  the  twelfth  place  in  the  extent  of 
her  railroad  system,  but  she  holds  a  much  higher  place  in 
general  means  of  communication,  as  she  has  first-class 
highways,  like  those  of  Europe,  which  traverse  the  island 
from  north  to  south,  crossing  the  mountains  at  an  altitude 
at  some  points  of  2,200  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 
These  highways  reach  a  total  length  of  140  miles,  and 
were  constructed  by  the  Government.  The  Government 
also  constructed,  between  the  years  1860  and  1868,  about 
250  miles  of  road  along  the  shore  of  the  island;  but  when 
the  municipalities  were  formed  in  1869  those  roads  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  local  corporations,  which  have 
unfortunately  so  entirely  neglected  them  that  at  the  pres- 
ent time  they  are  in  very  much  the  same  condition  as  the 
roads  of  Santo  Domingo  constructed  by  the  Spanish, 
which  neither  during  the  Haytian  rule  nor  under  the 
republic  received  any  care  whatever. 

—  142  — 


In  proportion  to  the  density  of  the  population  there  is 
for  each  10,000  inhabitants  the  following  extent  of  rail- 
road: 


Miles. 

Miles. 

Argentine  Republic,   . 

18.8 

Guatemala, 

.       3.1 

Uruguay,     . 

14 

Nicaragua, 

.      2.8 

Cuba 

12>^ 

Ecuador, 

.      2.2 

Costa  Rica, 

6.6 

Porto  Rico, 

1.9 

Chili.    .... 

5.9 

Honduras,  . 

.       1.6 

Mexico, 

5 

Salvador,     . 

.       1.5 

Paraguay,    . 

4.6 

Venezuela, 

.       1.2 

Peru,    .... 

3.4 

Colombia,    . 

.       0.5 

And  in  regard  to  the  most  important  particular,  that  is 
the  length  of  the  roads  in  proportion  to  the  area  of  the 
country,  which  is  what  will  give  the  clearest  idea  of  its 
facilities  for  transportation,  the  following  table  will  show 
the  number  of  miles  of  surface: 


Lineal  Miles. 

Lineal  Miles. 

United  States  of  America 

ChiH,                  .        .         .          5.8 

(North),        .         .         .         55.5 

Guatemala , 

4.4 

Cuba, 

57. 

Peru, 

1.9 

Porto  Rico, 

42. 

Nicaragua, 

1.9 

Salvador, 

17.1 

Brazil, 

l.T 

Uruguay, 

13.7 

Honduhas, 

1.5 

Mexico, 

7.5 

Venezuela, 

.5 

Costa  Rica, 

6. 

Colombia, 

.4 

Argentine  Republic, 

6.8 

Ecuador, 

.2 

I  shall  make  no  mention  of  the  telegraphic  lines,  for  I 
suppose  there  is  no  country  in  the  world  in  which  a  bird 
could  fly  without  danger  of  striking  against  telegraph 
wires,  but  I  will  speak  of  the  postal  and  telegraphic  move- 
ment, for  this  is  a  determining  factor  of  a  country's 
activity. 

According  to  the  figures  of  the  Almanack  de  Gotha,  of 
1887  (for  in  later  editions  they  are  omitted),  and  of  the 
official  works  published  by  the  Bureau  of  American 
Republics,  of  Washington,  of  1891-94,  Cuba  occupies  the 
twenty-first  and  eighteenth  places,  respectively,  in  the  use 
of  the  telegraph  and  the  mails  among  the  countries  of  the 
world,  and  the  third  place  among  the  Latin-American 
countries,  as  the  following  statistics  will  show. 

—  143  — 


Statistics  of  correspondence    received  and  sent  in  one 
year,  per  capita : 

2.6 
2.5 
1.8 
1.5 
1.3 
0.9 
0.6 

Number  of  telegraphic  dispatches  for  each  100  inhabi- 
tants received  and  sent : 


Uruguay, 

21.8 

Guatemala 

Chili, 

12.3 

Brazil, 

Cuba, 

11.4 

Peru, 

Mexico,    . 

11.3 

Ecuador,    . 

Costa  Rica, 

8.9 

Venezuela, 

Argentine  Republic, 

8. 

Honduras, 

Nicaragua, 

6.5 

Paraguay, 

Porto  Rico, 

4. 

Costa  Rica,    . 

.     30 

Porto  Rico,     . 

.     11 

Guatemala,    . 

.     24 

Colombia, 

.     10 

Cuba,      .... 

.     21 

Venezuela, 

.       8 

Chili 

.     21 

Peru, 

4 

Argentine  Republic, 

.     19 

Brazil,     . 

.       3 

Uruguay, 

.     13 

The  wealth  of  the  country  has  increased  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  its  amount  per  capita  will  bear  comparison  with 
that  of  the  most  prosperous  countries  of  Europe,  or  with 
that  of  the  United  States.  Its  total  value  last  year 
amounted  to  $850,000,000,  or  $531  per  capita.  In  the 
United  States  the  total  amount  was,  in  1890,  $25,473,000,- 
000,  or  $407.18  per  capita. 

Compared  with  some  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  Cuba 
would  occupy  twelfth  place,  as  to  the  average  capitation 
of   wealth,   according  to  the   following  showing: 


Per 

Per 

Capita. 

Capita 

Massachusetts,     .                  .  $962 

Utah,     . 

.   $510 

Rhode  Island, 

931 

Maryland,     . 

.     507 

California,    . 

911 

.  Pennsylvania, 

.     505 

Montana, 

854 

Vermont, 

.     487 

New  Hampshire, 

698 

Ohio,     . 

.     484 

District  of  Columbia, 

665 

North  Dakota, 

.     482 

New  York,    . 

631 

Connecticut, 

.     480 

Washington, 

632 

Arizona, 

.     470 

New  Jersey, 

618 

Maine, 

.     467 

Nevada, 

573 

Minnesota,    . 

.     452 

Wyoming,     , 

535 

Michigan, 

.     428 

Colorado, 

535 

South  Dakota.      . 

.     426 

Oregon, 

529 

—  144 


In  the  remaining  States  the  wealth  per  capita  is  less  than 
$400.  (See  the  official  statistics  of  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment.) 

The  value  of  the  rural  real  estate  alone  in  Cuba,  in  1887^ 
was  $220,902,906  gold,  giving  a  rental  of  17,000,000  an- 
nually, which  paid  taxes  to  the  amount  of  $1,365,000,  or 
8  per  cent,  on  the  rental. 

Thus,  in  Havana,  a  house  valued  at  $10,000  will  rent,  it 
is  estimated,  for  $800,  and  will  pay  a  tax  of  about  $70 ;  in 
New  York  a  property  of  the  same  value  pays  a  tax  two  or 
three  times  as  great.  Last  year  the  tax  was  1  9-10  per 
cent. ;  a  property  of  a  friend  of  mine,  which  was  valued  at 
$10,000,  was  taxed  at  $191.  This  year  the  tax  rate  in 
New  York  is  2.14  per  cent.,  and  the  same  property  will 
pay  $214. 

Another  important  factor  in  estimating  the  public 
wealth  is  represented  by  the  mortgage  operations,  as 
these  determine  the  territorial  value  which  a  country  pos- 
sesses only  when  it  has  reached  a  very  advanced  stage  of 
progress.  In  the  majority  of  the  Latin-American 
countries  the  urban  and  rural  real  estate,  outside  of  the 
capitals  and  principal  ports,  has  hardly  any  value  com- 
pared with  the  rent  which  it  brings.  In  those  countries 
very  often  a  property  which  rents  for  $10,000,  and  repre- 
sents a  capital  of  from  $100,000  to  150,000,  if  sold  for 
cash  would  bring  hardly  a  fifth  of  its  value,  and  some- 
times even  less;  the  price  must  be  made  payable  in  instal- 
ments, and  in  that  way,  perhaps  $40,000  or  $50,000  may  be 
obtained,  to  be  paid  in  instalments  of  $10,000  yearly;  that 
is  to  say,  the  same  sum  as  the  property  would  produce  in 
rent  in  foiir  or  five  years. 

Cuba,  owing  to  the  present  insurrection,  is  now  in  this 
situation  in  regard  to  her  credit,  which  will  not  become 
stable  again  for  many  years  to  come.  If  the  Island  should 
separate  from  Spain  the  present  generation  will  assuredly 
not  see  it  so. 

— 145  — 


The  value  of  the  real  estate  sold  in  Cuba  during  the  year 
1894  was  $18,000,000  in  round  numbers;  that  is  to  say- 
that  real  estate  was  sold  at  an  average  of  01  per  cent,  on 
its  nominal  value ;  and  if  it  be  taken  into  account  that  in 
1894,  two  years  previously,  the  country  had  passed  through 
an  economic  crisis,  the  result  chiefly  of  the  universal 
decline  in  the  price  of  sugar,  the  basis  of  the  wealth  of  the 
Island,  it  will  be  readily  understoood  that  this  difference 
was  quite  natural,  and  only  shows  that  the  value  of  prop- 
erty fluctuated  then  in  Cuba  in  the  same  way  as  it  would 
have  done  in  any  country  in  Europe  or  North  America. 

In  the  same  year  mortgages  were  paid  off  to  the  value 
of  $3,677,000,  distributed  in  049  parcels;  of  these  liquida- 
tions only  forty-seven,  or  5  per  cent,  of  the  total  number, 
were  of  a  legal  character;  that  is  to  say,  obligatory.  In 
regard  to  the  new  loans  made  during  the  year,  they 
reached  a  total  of  $3,875,000,  or  less  than  1  per  cent,  of 
the  full  value  of  the  property. 

I  think  that  the  above  data  will  suffice  to  give  a  correct 
idea  of  the  social  condition  and  the  material  prosperity  of 
Cuba  in  1805. 

The  only  republic  whose  paper  has  been  quoted  at  a 
premium  is  Chili,  which,  according  to  the  statistics  here 
given,  shows  a  condition  of  credit  and  prosperity  excep- 
tional on  the  American  continent,  and  if  the  paper  of  Cuba 
has  also  been  at  a  premium  I  do  not  by  any  means  imagine 
that  this  was  because  it  was  called  "  Cuba,"  but  because  it 
was  a  Spanish  debt,  for  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  all 
the  Spanish  public  debts  converted  into  one,  consolidated 
in  1881,  with  coupons  at  4  per  cent,  interest,  payable 
quarterly,  bear  G  per  cent,  interest  from  the  date  of  consol- 
idation and  have  never  fluctuated  more  than  three  or  four 
points,  and  that  only  momentarily,  owing  to  speculations 
on  the  exchange.  Just  now,  taking  up  the  first  Spanish 
newspaper  at  hand,  and  looking  for  the  quotation  of  the 
debt  I  find:   "  Paris,  15  (of  July),  Foreign  Spanish,  64.40." 

—  146  — 


In  my  opinion,  if  the  Cuban  insurrection  had  not  oc- 
curred, Cuba  would  now  owe  $50,000,000  or  $60,000,000, 
which  would  have  been  employed  on  such  works  of  public 
utility — a  central  railroad,  the  irrigation  of  agricultural 
zones  and  the  canalization  of  rivers,  &c. ,  as  Spain  has, 
and  which  in  Cuba  would  perhaps  have  doubled  the  value 
of  the  public  and  private  wealth. 

The  worst  thing  that  could  possibly  befall  Cuba  would 
be  that  she  should  not  have  a  debt,  for  without  loans  the 
development  of  her  hitherto  undeveloped  resources  would 
not  be  possible. 

VII. 

The  Budget  of  the  Island  is  no  doubt  exceedingly 
defective,  and  especially  so  in  the  branch  of  expen- 
ditures; this,  however,  has  not  been  ruinous,  for  the 
country  has  been  in  a  situation  to  pay  its  amount.  In  my 
opinion  it  might  be  and  ought  to  be  greater,  with  the  dif- 
ference that  the  expenses  of  the  Department  of  Public 
Works  and  Instruction  be  increased,  and  the  manner  of  col- 
lecting the  revenues  altered.  But  the  new  Law  of  Reforms 
passed  in  1895  seeks  to  correct  in  part  the  faults  of  the 
Budget,  which  was  chiefly  defective  from  the  injudicious 
manner  of  its  distribution,  for  the  Council  of  Administra- 
tion of  the  Island  in  Havana,  where  it  will  be  easier  to 
attend  to  the  wants  of  the  country  than  from  the  Penin- 
sula, is  to  arrange  and  vote  the  Budget  in  all  that  relates 
to  the  departments  of  public  works,  telegraphic  and  postal 
communication  and  means  of  transport  by  land  and  sea, 
to  agriculture,  industries  and  commerce,  immigration, 
colonization  and  public  instruction,  charities  and  health. 

The  Budget  of  1892-93  was  $23,074,000;  that  of  1893-94 
and  1994-95  increased  to  $26,000,000,  without  any  in- 
crease, however,  in  the  appropriation  for  works  of  public 
utility,  to  the  decided  discontent  of  the  taxpayers. 

With  this  last  sum  the  amount  per  capita  which  the 
country  was   taxed   was  $15,    Cuba   thus  occupying  the 

—  147  — 


Per 
Capita. 

Argentina $1(> 

Hayti 16 

Cuba 15 


seventh  place  among  the  Latin- American  countries,  for 
Cuba  is  not,  as  is  so  frequently  asserted,  the  country  most 
heavily  taxed. 

See  the  following  table  of  taxation  per  capita : 

Per 
Capita. 

Chili, $23 

Brazil,           ....  22 

Uruguay,      ....  20 

Costa  Rica,           ...  19 

Of  these  $15,  $6.50  go  to  the  payment  of  the  interest  on 
the  public  debt,  which  amounts  to  $10,500,000  annually. 
This  sum  does  not  benefit  the  country  in  any  degree,  as 
it  is  sent  abroad  for  the  payment  of  the  coupons  of  the 
public  debt. 

Of  the  remainder,  that  is  to  say  $15,500,000,  more  than 
$14,000,000  remain  in  the  Island;  of  this  amount,  unfortu- 
nately, only  a  small  part  is  expended  on  public  works  or  on 
material ;  the  remainder  is  expended  on  the  salaries  of  the 
employees,  but  as  living  expenses  in  Cuba  are  greater  than 
in  any  other  country  in  the  world,  with  the  exception  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  employees,  whether  they  be 
Cubans  or  Spaniards,  cannot  live  on  air,  very  few  of  them 
are  able  to  save  anything  out  of  their  salaries.  Those  who 
send  money  to  Europe,  or  take  money  with  them  when 
they  leave  the  Island,  generally  obtain  it  by  speculations, 
not  always  honorable,  perhaps,  in  which  the  Spanish  and 
Cuban  merchant  alike  take  part,  for  neither  is  immaculate 
and  they  both  want  to  make  money. 

The  Budget  of  Revenues  is  derived  from  direct  taxation, 
the  revenues  of  the  State  and  the  customs;  these  represent 
45  per  cent,  of  the  Budget. 

The  tariff  is  one  of  the  sources  of  the  public  revenues 
which  most  requires  a  radical  change.  The  duty  on  ex- 
ports (although  not  more  than  three-fourths  per  cent,  of 
the  value  of  the  products,  according  to  the  official  appraise- 
ment, the  articles  being  appraised  on  the  basis  of  the  mini- 
mum value,   it  affects  them  really  only  to  the  amount  of 

—  148  — 


one-half  per  cent.),  is  irritating  and  ought  to  be  abolished, 
as  it  is  abolished  in  the  new  tariff  which  is  about  to  be  laid 
before  the  present  Cortes. 

The  duties  on  imports  also  require  a  radical  change,  for, 
while  many  superfluous  or  little  used  articles  pay  compara- 
tively little,  others,  which  are  necessaries  of  life  for  the 
majority  of  the  people,  are  excessively  taxed.  The  tariff  in 
general  is  as  defective  as  those  of  the  republics,  although 
in  these  the  system  of  taxation  is  more  irregular  and 
primitive. 

In  Uruguay,  however,  the  tariff  is  more  burdensome  for 
the  consumer,  for  while  the  average  duty  on  imports  is  30 
per  cent,  of  their  value  (in  Cuba  it  is  25),  many  articles  nec- 
essary for  subsistence  or  for  the  development  of  the  indus- 
tries of  the  country  pay,  the  former  50  per  cent,  and  the 
latter  20  per  cent,  ad  valorem.  In  Uruguay  two- thirds  of 
the  amount  of  the  Budget  are  derived  from  the  customs. 
In  Mexico,  the  majority  of  articles  pay  even  more — 60 
per  cent. ;  in  Guatemala  an  average  of  70  per  cent. ,  and  so 
on  in  the  majority  of  the  sister  countries. 

The  public  debt  amounted  in  1894  to  $170,090,000,  that 
is,  $100  per  capita,  being  less  than  that  of  Uruguay,  but 
as  much  as  that  of  the  Argentine  Republic. 

But  this  figure  cannot  justly  be  compared  with  that  of 
other  countries,  since  the  Cuban  debt  was  created  alto- 
gether in  consequence  of  the  ten  years'  insurrection.  The 
Cuban  people,  who  in  general  took  no  part  in  the  insurrec- 
tion, and  who  now  see  that  if  its  leaders  had  had  more  love 
for  their  country  than  desire  to  gratify  personal  ambition 
or  personal  animosities  it  would  never  have  taken  place, 
very  naturally  complain  of  having  to  bear  so  heavy  a  bur- 
den ;  but  those  who  were  the  cause  of  that  evil,  as  they 
are  now  of  the  new  debt  which  is  being  created,  should 
have  the  courage  of  their  acts  and  be  willing  to  bear  all 
the  consequences. 

In  any  case,  had  the  independence  of  the  Island  been 

— 149  — 


realized,  in  virtue  of  a  treaty  by  which  Cuba  should  recog- 
nize that  debt,  as  was  proposed,  it  would  not  be  merely 
$10,000,000,  which  we  are  paying  now — at  6  per  cent,  in- 
terest—but $13,000,000  or  $14,000,000  that  we  should 
have  to  pay;  and  in  case  we  did  not  pay  it,  which 
would  have  been  very  probable,  as  the  wealth  of  the 
country  would  in  all  likelihood  not  have  increased  as  it 
did  from  the  peace  of  Zanjon  down  to  1895,  the  credit  of 
Cuba  would  have  declined  to  the  level  of  that  of  some  of 
the  other  countries  which,  through  their  failure  to  comply 
punctually  with  their  foreign  obligations,  are  continually 
engaged  in  conflicts  with  the  governments  of  their  cred- 
itors, and  lead  a  mean  and  stationary  existence,  notwith- 
standing the  great  resources  of  their  territories. 

According  to  the  ' '  Report  of  the  Council  of  Foreign 
Bondholders "  of  1895,  the  amount  of  the  debts  of  a 
number  of  republics  that  were  neither  amortixed  nor 
gained  interest,  amounted  to  ^71,675,000  sterling: 


Argentine  Republic,  ;^39,416,000 
Honduras,  .         .  15,622,000 

Venezuela,  .         .     7,498,000 

Colombia,  .        .     3,910,000 


Compare  with  this  the  quotations  of  the  principal  Span- 
ish-American bonds  on  the  Paris  Bourse  on  February  2  of 
last  year: 


Costa  Rica, 

.  ;^2,050,000 

Guatemala, 

.     1,956,000 

Paraguay, 

913,000 

Nicaragua, 

302,000 

Per  Cent. 

Per  Cent 

Of  Cuba, 

102>^ 

Of  Guatemala,      . 

28 

Chili, 

102 

Ecuador, 

26 

Mexico,    . 

73/8 

Colombia, 

15 

Uruguay, 

47 

Paraguay, 

12 

Argentine  Republic, 

41 

Honduras, 

10 

Costa  Rica, 

29 

—  150. 


VIII. 

Owing  to  the  increase  in  the  cultivation  of  the  agricul- 
tural products  of  Cuba,  and  especially  of  sugar  and 
tobacco,  within  the  last  ten  years,  her  commerce  had 
attained  proportions  truly  extraordinary.  The  country 
which  has  profited  most  by  this  agricultural  develop- 
ment is  the  United  States,  and  this  it  is  perhaps  which 
has  awakened  in  a  certain  portion  of  the  American 
people,  which,  it  is  to  be  said,  however,  is  neither  the 
largest  nor  the  best,  that  desire  to  extend  the  territory  of 
the  Union  to  the  Antillian  Sea,  which  is  the  principal 
cause  of  the  evils  from  which  Cuba  is  to-day  suffering. 

From  $90,000,000,  to  which  the  commercial   movement 
amounted  in  1880,  it  had  risen  in  1892  to  $170,458,553,  as 
follows : 
Imports   .        .         .     $69,444,287  |  Exports    .         .         .     $101,014,266 

The  following  table  shows  the  increase  as  compared 
with  that  of  the  republics  of  the  continent: 


INCREASE  IN  TRADE  IN  TWELVE  YEARS. 


Cuba, 

Argentine  Republic, 

Brazil, 

Chili, 

Uruguay, 

Mexico,    . 

Porto  Rico, 

Guatemala, 

Colombia, 

Costa  Rica, 

Bolivia,    . 

Santo  Domingo, 

Venezuela, 

Paraguay, 

In  the  remaining 
less,  there  has  been 


1880-83. 

$90,000,000 

100,000,000 

268,000,000 

99,000,000 

40,000,000 

53,000,000 

24,000.000 

8,100,000 

28,000,000 

6,500,000 

600,000 

3,400,000 

33,300,000 

3,300,000 


1890-92. 

$170,000,000 

163,800,000 

317.000,000 

131,100,000 

61,400.000 

73.000,000 

33,000,000 

14,400,000 

33,900,000 

11,700,000 

3,500,000 

6,300,000 

35,700,000 

5,600,000 


Increase. 

$80,000,000 

63,000,000 

49,000,000 

32.100,000 

21,400,000 

20,000,000 

9,000,000 

6,300,000 

5,900,000 

5,200,000 

2,900,000 

2,900,000 

2,400,000 

2,300,000 


countries  either  the  increase  has  been 
none,  or  there  has  been  a  diminution > 


151 


K^y'  aw  THm 

|TJ»I7BRSIT7] 


Twelve  years  of  peace  sufficed  to  double  the  commercial 
movement  of  Cuba. 

The  value  of  the  imports  and  the  amount  of  their 
annual  consumption  per  capita  in  the  years  of  1890-93 
were  as  follows : 


Uruguay, 

Cuba, 

Chili, 

Costa  Rica,     . 

Argentine  Republic, 

Brazil, 

Paraguay, 

Venezuela, 

Ecuador, 

Colombia, 

Guatemala, 

Mexico,   . 

Peru, 


Total,  $491,999,000,  for  a  total  population  of  43,000,000, 
from  which  it  follows  that,  while  the  inhabitants  of 
the  majority  of  the  Spanish- American  republics  buy 
imported  articles  to  the  value  of  $11  per  capita, 
in  Cuba  each  inhabitant  buys  to  the  value  of  $43  an- 
nually. 

Of  these  imports  the  following  were  from  the  United 
States : 


Per 

Imports. 

Capita. 

$32,364,000 

$45.6 

69,444,257 

43.4 

65,090,000 

26.6 

5,423,000 

22.3 

67,165,000 

16.8 

143,055,000 

10.7 

2,744,000 

8.5 

16,274,000 

7. 

6,510,000 

5.1 

13,445,000 

8.4 

5,010,000 

3.3 

28,000,000 

2.4 

6,159,000 

2.4 

Per 
Cent. 

Per 

Cent 

Mexico, 

.     45 

Peru,     . 

.     33 

Argentine  Republic, 

.     41 

Ecuador, 

.     11 

Cuba,     . 

.     29 

Colombia,     . 

9 

Guatemala, 

.     26 

Brazil, 

.       7 

Venezuela, 

.     25 

Chili, 

6 

Costa  Rica, 

.     24 

Uruguay, 

3 

or  a  total  of  $100,000,000  of  which  Cuba  alone  purchases 
one-fifth.  In  the  year  1894,  in  consequence  of  the  treaty 
of  commerce  concluded  between  Spain  and  the  United 
States,  Cuba  consumed  American  products  to  the  value  of 
$33,617,000,  or  52  per  cent,  of  her  imports. 

The  value  of  the  exports  in  the  principal  South  Ameri- 

— 152  — 


per  capita,  estimated  in 


can  republics  and  the  proportion 
dollars,  was  as  follows : 


Cuba,    . 
Uruguay, 
Costa  Rica,  . 
Argentine  Republ 
Chili,     . 
Brazil,   . 
Paraguay,     . 
Venezuela,    . 
Guatemala,  . 
Colombia, 
Ecuador, 
Mexico, 
Peru,     . 


The  following  table  shows  the  total  amount  of  foreign 
trade  and  the  amount  per  capita  in  the  several  countries 

in  1892: 

CUBA. 

§106  per  inhabitant. 

Population,  1,600,000.  Foreign  trade,  $170,000,000. 

URUGUAY. 

$83  per  inhabitant. 

Population,  700,000.  Foreign  trade,  $61,000,000. 

COSTA  RICA. 


Value 
of  Exports. 

Per 
Capita. 

$101,000,000 

$63.1 

29,000,000 

41. 

6,300,000 

25. 

96,700,000 

24.2 

66,000,000 

23.5 

174,000,000 

12.5 

2,900,000 

9. 

19,500,000 

8.4 

9,400,000 

6.2 

20,400,000 

5. 

6,400,000 

5. 

45,000,000 

4. 

6,600,000 

3. 

$45  per  inhabitant. 
Population,  243,000.  Foreign  trade,  $18,000,000. 

CHILI. 


$42  per  inhabitant. 
Population,  $2,800,000.  Foreign  trade,  $130,000,000. 

BRAZIL. 


$40  per  inhabitant. 
Population,  14,000,000.  Foreign  trade,  $587,000,000. 

HAYTI. 


$35  per  inhabitant. 

Population,  572,000.  Foreign  trade,  $20,000,000. 

PORTO  RICO. 


$27  per  inhabitant. 
Population,  800,000.  Foreign  trade,  $33,000,000. 


153  — 


VENEZUELA. 


$19.50  per  inhabitant. 

Population,  2,300,000.  Foreign  trade,  $36,000,000. 

ARGENTINE  REPUBLIC. 


Population,  4,000,000. 


$15  per  inhabitant. 

Foreign  trade,  $242,0'00,000. 
(Paper  money.) 


It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  only  products  of  Cuba 
are  sugar  and  tobacco.     This  is  a  serious  mistake. 

Some  persons  lay  the  blame  for  this  deficiency  of 
products  on  the  Government,  while  very  many  enlightened 
people  think  that  the  spirit  of  indolence  which  prevails  in 
the  country  is  responsible  for  it. 

In  Cuba  the  habits  of  routine  established  in  other  coun- 
tries have  not  yet  become  deeply  rooted,  because  Cuba 
came  only  yesterday,  as  one  might  say,  into  commercial 
and  political  existence,  and  has  no  traditions,  which,  while 
they  are  of  great  value  to  a  people  from  a  social  point 
of  view,  are  often  a  hindrance  to  material  progress. 

Without  counting  cane  sugar  and  tobacco,  her  exporta- 
tions  of  other  products  would  be  sufficient  to  give  Cuba  a 
place  among  exporting  countries.  The  other  fruits  and 
products  exported  by  her  represent  a  sum  equal  to,  if  not 
greater  than,  that  of  the  foreign  trade  of  many  inde- 
pendent countries. 

We  give  below  the  official  statement  of  the  exportation 
of  different  fruits,  according  to  the  annual  record  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  of  Havana,  of  1892  (January  1), 
corresponding  to  the  year  1891: 


Mineral  products. 

$1,700,000 

Sweetmeats, 

$130,000 

Timber,      . 

842,000 

Sweet  Potatoes 

Onions, 

Bananas,    . 

700,000 

&c..         . 

110,000 

Pineapples, 

450,000 

Cattle. 

100,000 

Coffee  and  Cacao, 

450,000 

Cocoanuts, 

91,000 

Hides, 

310,000 

Oranges,    . 

58,000 

Wax  and  Honey, 

287,000 

Various  other  exports. 

610.000 

Sponges,    . 

150,000 

Total, 


$5,988,000 


—  154  — 


In  addition  to  these,  rum  and  brandy  were  exported  to 
the  value  of  $1,000,000,  and  molasses  to  the  value  of 
$1,500,000,  neither  of  which  I  have  included,  as  they  are 
products  of  the  sugar  cane. 

These  exports  amount  in  value  to  $6,000,000,  that  is  to 
say,  about  the  same  as  those  of  Ecuador,  which  has  almost 
the  same  population  as  Cuba,  or  as  those  of  Bolivia  and 
Santo  Domingo,  which  together  have  twice  as  many  in- 
habitants as  Cuba, 

In  addition  there  are  in  the  Island  many  factories,  which 
manufacture  goods  not  only  for  home  consumption,  but 
also  for  exportation  to  the  neighboring  countries. 


IX. 


To  complete  the  picture  which  I  have  attempted  to 
draw,  comparing  the  condition,  social  and  economic,  of 
the  Spanish  Antilles  and  the  Spanish- American  Republics, 
it  now  remains  to  compare  them  in  regard  to  their  politi- 
cal conditio.!  and  the  liberities  which  they  enjoy. 

The  policy  pursued  by  Spain  in  Porto  Rico  and  Cuba 
from  1836  to  1868  was  most  disastrous;  owing  to  it  the 
germ  of  independence  brought  from  the  continent  and 
developed  in  the  heat  caused  by  the  uncompromising 
policy  of  the  Government,  produced  down  to  1855,  as 
hybrid  fruits,  a  few  isolated  attempts  at  revolution,  insig- 
nificant in  themselves,  but  of  importance  because  they 
alarmed  the  Spanish  Government  without,  unfortunately, 
making  it  modify  its  policy  of  repression,  but  on  the  con- 
trary causing  it  to  carry  out  this  policy  still  more  strin- 
gently, thus  increasing  the  causes  for  discontent  which 
the  country  already  had. 

The  advance  in  modem  ideas  which  was  made  in  Spain 
at  that  time  also  reached  the  Antilles,  and  when  a  radical 
change  in  the  policy  of  Spain  was  about  to  be  made  it  was 

—  155  — 


also  determined  to  modify  the  system  of  government  in 
Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  conformably  with  the  aspirations  and 
the  needs  of  the  islands. 

For  this  reason  the  thoughtful  men  of  Cuba,  the  men  of 
political  weight,  were  then,  as  they  are  now,  opposed  to 
separation. 

The  revolution  known  in  the  history  of  Spain  as  the 
Revolution  of  September,  which  resulted  in  the  exile  of 
Isabella  II.  and  the  formation  of  a  regency,  with  the  Duke 
de  la  Torre  at  its  head,  under  the  guarantee  for  the  peo- 
ple of  an  altogether  democratic  Constitution,  with  uni- 
versal suffrage  and  other  entirely  liberal  laws  which  gave 
the  Spanish  people  a  direct  intervention  in  the  government 
that  it  had  not  before  had,  would  have  given  Cuba  the 
same  rights,  had  it  not  been  that  three  weeks  after  the 
establishment  of  this  government  in  Spain  a  revolution 
broke  out  in  the  Island,  on  October  10,  of  a  separatist 
character,  under  the  leadership,  not  of  adventurers  like 
the  majority  of  the  leaders  of  the  present  insurrection, 
but  of  ambitious  and  visionary  young  men,  which,  alarm- 
ing the  Government,  placed  the  Island  on  a  war  footing 
and  prevented  for  the  time  all  change  in  the  political 
situation. 

The  fact  that  when  the  Constitution  was  voted  it  was 
extended,  with  universal  suffrage  and  the  other  civil  and 
political  laws  of  1869,  to  the  Island  of  Porto  Rico,  is  the 
best  proof  that  Cuba  would  have  obtained  the  same 
liberties  if  the  country  had  not  been  placed  on  a  war 
footing. 

Therefore  it  is  that  I  have  called  that  insurrection 
untimely.  To  wait  thirty-two  years  in  order  to  rebel 
against  the  mother  country  just  at  the  moment  when  she 
was  changing  radically  her  political  organization,  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  liberties  which  up  to  that  time  Spain 
herself  had  not  enjoyed,  and  which  she  was  only  then  be- 
ginning to  enjoy,  was  altogether  unjustifiable, 

—  156  — 


A  few  months  more  of  waiting  and  Cuba,  too,  would 
have  had  those  liberties ;  so  many  lives  would  not  have 
been  uselessly  sacrificed,  nor  would  a  debt  of  so  many 
millions  have  been  incurred. 

This  insurrection  terminated,  and  I  have  already  shown 
the  advance  which  was  effected  by  it  in  political  evolution 
in  Cuba,  to  the  extent  of  causing  the  majority  of  the  Pen- 
insulars to  adopt  a  decentralizing  policy  and  to  form  a 
Liberal  Reformist  political  party  on  the  basis  of  adminis- 
trative self-government. 

With  all  these  perturbations,  and  with  all  the  defects  of 
the  system  of  government  which  it  has  had,  I  will  now 
proceed  to  show — and  this  is  the  object  of  the  present 
chapter — that  in  Cuba  greater  tranquillity  and  more  politi- 
cal liberty  have  been  enjoyed  than  are  enjoyed  in  any  of 
her  sister  countries  ruled  by  themselves. 

In  the  first  place,  in  the  majority  of  those  countries  the 
head  of  the  State  has  been  almost  ahvays  a  soldier,  for  it 
is  rare  to  find  a  Spanish- American  citizen  of  standing  who 
does  not  possess  a  military  title  and  who  does  not  owe  his 
position  rather  to  his  personal  influence,  employed  in  favor 
of  or  against  the  Government,  than  to  his  intellectual 
worth. 

In  Cuba  also  we  have  the  misfortune  to  have  a  soldier 
at  the  head  of  the  Government,  but  he  is  aided  by  a  Secre- 
tary-General, who  directs  the  political  and  civil  administra- 
tion of  affairs,  and  who  is  generally  a  civilian  ;  it  is  true 
that  he  is  not  a  Cuban ;  but,  in  exchange,  the  Cubans  who 
belong  to  the  administrative  professions  have  as  a  field  for 
the  exercise  of  their  abilities,  in  addition  to  our  own  coun- 
try, Spain,  Porto  Rico  and  the  Philippines ;  that  is  to  say, 
several  countries  having  a  total  population  of  24,000,000. 

If  we  pay  without  any  benefit  to  the  country  $7,000,- 
000  or  $8,000,000  annually  for  the  Departments  of  War 
and  Marine,  in  those  countries  also  large  sums  are  an- 
nually spent  (in  the    Argentine,  $13,000,000  ;  Venezuela, 

—  157  — 


$5,000,000,  &c.),  with  the  difference  in  our  favor  that 
while  for  us  the  army  is  only  a  costly  European  luxury, 
for  those  countries,  besides  being  costly,  it  is  also  prej- 
udicial, for  it  is  the  cause  of  the  continual  revolutions 
and  disturbances  in  the  midst  of  which  the  people  live, 
and  which  are  the  principal,  if  not  the  sole  reason,  why 
those  countries  in  general  do  not  progress  more,  for  they 
keep  away  capital,  discredit  them  and  produce  distrust 
abroad,  and  serve  some  few  as  a  ladder  to  climb  to 
power  or  to  obtain  coveted  positions. 

We  complain  of  our  laws,  although  in  reality  they  are  in 
substance  the  same  as  the  laws  of  those  coimtries;  for, 
except  in  questions  of  detail,  they  are  all  based  on  the 
spirit  of  the  Roman  law ;  and  the  later  laws,  which  are 
more  like  regulations,  are  modeled  on  the  obtrusive  and 
parsimonious  French  law  of  Napoleon  III.,  which  we, 
too,  had  the  misfortune  to  copy. 

As  for  the  application  of  the  laws,  if  this  is  bad  it  is 
not  because  of  the  laws  themselves,  but  because  of 
the  character  of  our  people  ;  and  the  only  difference 
which  I  have  observed  between  Cuba  and  her  sister 
countries  in  this  respect  is  that  our  authorities  apply  the 
law  according  to  their  own  interpretation,  if  the  injured 
party  does  not  know  how  to  assert  his  rights  ;  while  in 
those  countries  the  authorities  act  according  to  their  own 
caprice,  without  taking  any  account  whatever  of  the  law. 

Many  of  those  who  have  emigrated  from  the  countries 
referred  to  for  political  reasons  can  testify  to  this  fact,  to 
which  I  myself  have  on  more  than  one  occasion  called  the 
attention  of  my  American  friends. 

Both  in  Cuba  and  in  Porto  Rico,  as  a  Cuban  and  a 
Spanish  citizen  I  have  publicly  denounced  the  judicial  acts 
of  the  authorities  when  I  have  thought  them  censurable ; 
sometimes  I  have  been  prosecuted  with  the  utmost  rigor 
of  the  law,  but  the  law  itself  has  served  to  protect  me  and 
bring  me  out  of  the  conflict  victorious.      In  many  of  the 

—  158  — 


South  American  states,  with  popular  institutions  anjdrpfcher 
nominal  guarantees^  the  citizens  do  not  enjoy  half  as 
liberty  of  speech  and  action  as  do  those  of  Porto  Rico  and- 
Cuba. 

I  will  not  cite  examples,  for  by  so  doing  I  might  wound 
the  susceptibilities  of  those  who  are  our  brothers  by  origin, 
but  I  will  point  out  some  of  the  results  of  the  political 
backwardness  of  many  of  those  countries,  which  any 
observant  person  may  perceive  for  himself. 

The  unbroken  circle  of  civil  wars,  revolts  and  epochs 
of  repression,  of  real  reaction,  in  which  political  life  re- 
volves in  those-  countries,  has  for  its  chief  cause  the  inor- 
dinate desire  for  power  of  their  public  men,  and  the  con- 
stant but  never  realized  desire  of  the  people  to  assert  their 
rights,  which  disposes  them  to  follow  any  ambitious  leader 
who  wishes  to  seize  the  supreme  command  or  to  attain 
whatever  other  aims  he  may  have,  without  waiting  for 
time  or  his  own  merits  to  justify  his  claims. 

Thus  those  countries  have  for  many  years  alternated 
between  a  weak  and  unstable  government  and  a  des- 
potism. 

Mexico,  for  example,  previous  to  the  rule  of  General 
Diaz,  who,  at  the  same  time  that  he  is  a  soldier,  has  proved 
himself  an  able  statesman,  had  an  infinity  of  military 
revolutions  and  changes  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  the 
state,  although  not  so  many  as  Ecuador,  whose  Consti- 
tution was  altered  in  1833,  1841,  1861,  1869,  and  1883  suc- 
cessively. 

In  Mexico,  in  the  space  of  thirty-one  years  there  were 
thirty-six  Presidents ;  between  1846  and  1847  not  less  than 
eight,  and  from  1857  to  1858,  four.  On  the  other  hand, 
in  a  period  of  forty-one  years  only  three  men  have  held 
the  supreme  power.  At  least  half  of  the  Presidents  have 
ruled  provisionally. 

In  Venezuela  the  same  thing  has  occurred ;  Paez  ruled 
for  twenty  years,  and  Guzman  Blanco  seventeen ;  it  being 

—  159  — 


worthy  of  note  that  it  was  during  these  periods  that  the 
progress  of  the  country  was  greatest. 

Guatemala  similarly  had  in  twenty-five  years  nineteen 
Presidents,  and  three  in  a  period  of  thirty-two  years. 

And  if  this  has  occurred  in  countries  where  the  influence 
of  an  exotic  race,  hostile  to  the  white  race  for  historic  and 
ethnic  reasons,  did  not  exist,  let  us  consider  for  a  moment 
what  might  occur  in  a  country  where  a  quarter  of  the 
population  is  irreconcilably  hostile  to  the  remainder, 
which,  on  the  other  hand,  has  not  ceased  to  hold  certain 
prejudices,  justifiable  to  some  extent,  against  the  former. 


X. 


Of  the  present  insurrection  I  shall  say  but  little ;  it  was 
brought  about  by  the  action  of  the  separatist  party  in 
New  York,  aided  by  some  young  men  in  Cuba,  vision- 
aries whose  convictions,  neither  very  firm  nor  very  pro- 
found, had  no  more  solid  foundation  than  a  youthful  spirit 
of  adventure,  exaggerated  by  the  national  temperament 
and  the  habit  of  judging  the  most  serious  questions,  such 
as  social  and  political  questions  are,  without  a  previous 
study  of  them,  considering  results  only  without  searching 
for  their  causes.  These  were  joined,  as  the  insurgent  con- 
tingent, by  a  portion  of  the  agricultural  laborers,  those 
who  were  by  nature  most  inclined  for  the  life  required  by 
the  jungle;  men  of  very  simple  habits,  unused  to  the  com- 
forts of  domestic  life,  and  without  attachment  for  the 
home ;  for  neither  in  the  Antilles  nor  on  the  South  Amer- 
ican continent  does  there  exist  among  the  proletarian  class 
the  ideal  of  the  home  as  it  is  understood  in  Europe,  or 
in  the  United  States,  by  the  same  class. 

A  thorough  understanding  of  the  manner  of  life  of  the 
day  laborer,  and  more  especially  of  the  mulatto  and  the 
negro,  in  those  countries  is   indispensable  in    order  to  be 

—  160  — 


able  to  estimate  at  its  exact  value  an  uprising  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  present  insurrection. 

In  no  country  does  the  day  laborer  earn  comparatively 
better  wages  than  in  Cuba — from  $1  to  $1.50  a  day;  and 
as  the  majority  of  the  agricultural  labors  are  performed  by 
the  job,  if  the  laborer  is  industrious  it  is  not  unusual  for 
him  to  earn  $2  or  $3  a  day.  He  is  very  frugal  in  his  habits, 
and  with  40  cents  a  day  he  can  provide  for  all  his  wants, 
smoking  included.  For  clothing  he  requires  only  a  pair 
of  trousers,  a  shirt  and  a  hat,  which  altogether  cost  per- 
haps $2,  or  even  less.  The  rest  of  his  earnings  he  spends 
in  superfluities ;  but  as  he  does  not  make  himself  the  slave 
of  these,  whenever  he  wishes  he  can  dispense  with  them 
without  considering  it  a  sacrifice;  and  in  his  house,  which 
is  constructed  of  wood  and  straw,  and  which  consists  of 
two  rooms,  one  in  which  the  women  and  the  father  of  the 
family  sleep,  and  another  which  serves  as  a  parlor,  dining 
room  and  pantry,  and  in  which  the  sons  and  the  friends  of 
the  family  sleep,  for  the  Cuban  peasant's  hospitality  is  such 
that  in  every  rancho  there  is  always  some  visitor  to  spend 
the  night — some  friend,  old  or  new,  who  either  lives  in  the 
house  or  who  is  staying  for  the  night,  after  having  dined 
with  the  family. 

This  custom  of  hospitality  was  not  lost  in  Cuba  even  in 
the  ten  years'  war  through  which  the  country  passed. 
From  the  poorest  hut  to  the  richest  mansion  it  is  the  gen- 
eral rule  for  the  family  to  have  some  guest. 

The  hammock  to  sleep  in,  a  table  (which  is  not  used  for 
meals,  however,  for  everyone  eats  with  his  plate  in  his 
hand,  seated  on  a  bench,  on  the  floor,  or  in  the  hammock), 
and  a  few  wooden  benches  with  leather  backs  and  seats, 
constitute  the  furniture ;  a  wooden  chest  serves  as  a  press, 
and  in  this  everything  they  have — which  is  unhappily 
very  little — is  kept;  the  men  usually  have  two  suits  of 
clothes,  the  one  which  they  are  wearing  and  another  in 
the  wash ;  two  hats,  one  for  every  day,  and  a  panama  hat 

— 161  —  . 


worth  $16  or  more — for  this  is  his  great  luxury — for  feast 
days.  These  and  a  pair  of  shoes,  a  pair  of  spurs  and  a 
good  machete,  in  addition  to  the  one  used  in  his  daily 
work,  constitute  the  outfit  of  the  unmarried  peasant,  and 
this  apparel  he  carries  tied  up  in  a  bandana  handkerchief 
when  he  roams  from  place  to  place. 

This,  together  with  the  facility  with  which  he  can  find 
free  lodgings  everywhere,  causes  the  ^^  guajiro"  insensibly 
to  become  detached  from  the  home  and  to  habituate  him- 
self to  a  semi-nomad  life. 

I  have  known  in  Matanzas,  for  instance,  young  men  of 
twenty,  from  the  Orient,  who  had  been  away  from  their 
homes  for  two  or  three  years  without  having  once  visited 
them,  who  had  traveled  through  the  greater  part  of  the 
Island  and  worked  at  every  kind  of  agricultural  occupation 
and  every  industry  followed  in  it. 

With  this  way  of  life,  the  Cuban  being  in  general  rash 
to  temerity,  and  strong  to  bear  the  fatigues  of  traveling,  and 
there  being  in  the  Island  more  than  five  hundred  thousand 
houses^  nearly  300,000  of  them  in  the  provinces  of  Santiago 
de  Cuba,  Puerto  Principe  and  Las  Villas,  the  fact  is  indeed 
in  no  way  strange  that  the  leaders  of  the  insurrection  should 
soon  have  found  themselves  at  the  head  of  numerous  fol- 
lowers. 

That  the  insurrection  was  not  a  spontaneous  movement 
of  the  Cuban  people  was  evident  from  the  fact  that  neither 
the  better  portion  of  the  population,  the  educated  and 
intelligent  classes,  nor  those  who  had  given  proof  of  real 
patriotism  joined  the  insurrection ;  nor  did  any  large  part 
of  the  working  classes  join  it  when  the  insurgent  bands 
scoured  the  country  in  search  of  recruits ;  not  even  those 
who  were  out  of  work  and  who,  it  might  have  been  sup- 
posed, would  join  it  in  order  to  obtain  a  means  of  sub- 
sistence, for  nine-tenths  of  the  sugar  cane  crop  being 
destroyed  and  the  remaining  crops  abandoned,  more  than 
150,000  men  had  been  left  without  work. 

—•162  — 


The  news  that  comes  to  us  from  the  separatist  camp 
clearly  shows  what  kind  of  people  they  are  who  have 
swelled  the  insurgent  ranks. 

Setting  aside  the  partiality  of  the  source  of  the  news,  we 
see  that  those  who  have  joined  the  insurgent  camp  are 
Cuban  young  men  of  good  families  who  have  lived  for 
many  years  abroad ;  naturalized  foreigners  and  men  who, 
although  not  born  in  Cuba,  call  themselves  Cubans  and 
consider  that  they  have  the  right  to  intervene  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  country  because  their  families  are  of  Cuban 
,  origin ;  men  who,  in  reality,  have  very  little  knowledge  of 
the  social  or  political  condition  of  the  Island,  but  who 
cherish  a  peculiar  affection  for  it  founded  on  biased  de- 
scriptions of  its  situation  as  it  was  thirty  years  ago. 

Others  are  soldiers  by  profession ;  that  is  to  say,  men 
who,  like  the  Scotch  and  Swiss  in  former  times,  hire  their 
swords  and  fight  for  any  cause,  whether  it  appeals  to  their 
sympathies  or  not;  others  are  actuated  by  even  lower 
motives  than  this;  individuals  who  have  been  obliged  to 
expatriate  themselves  and  who  wish  to  forget  some  epi- 
sode in  their  past  lives  in  the  fierce  excitement  of  war ;  or 
men  like  those  Italians  who  carry  a  hand-organ  about  the 
streets  from  morning  till  night,  fancying  that  they  are 
artists  and  are  leading  an  independent  existence  without 
having  to  %vork. 

Besides  these  foreign  elements,  who  are  those  that  have 
joined  the  insurrection  ?  Adventurers  who  abandon 
civilization  because  they  are  obnoxious  to  it,  like  the  so- 
called  Captain  Wilson,  who  headed  a  small  expedition 
which  landed  last  January  on  the  eastern  part  of  the 
Island,  and  who,  as  the  American  newspapers  stated  after- 
ward, went  to  Cuba  to  avoid  being  compelled  to  appear 
before  the  Federal  courts  to  answer  a  charge  of  having 
broken  into  and  robbed  a  post  office  in  Ohio. 

Of  the  large  number  of  men  of  weight  and  position  who 
are  in  the  Island  very  few,  perhaps  not  5  per  cent.,  have 

—  163  — 


g-one  over  to  the  insurrection.  Not  one  of  all  those  whom 
I  mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter  has  joined  the  insurgent 
ranks. 

The  men  who  still  remain  at  home  after  a  year  of  fight- 
ing, after  the  rebel  bands  have  scoured  the  country  and 
appeared  in  the  neighborhood  of  every  city — can  they  be 
considered  as  separatists  at  heart  ?     I  think  not. 

The  Island  has  a  rural  population  of  more  than  200,000 
men  who  lived  by  agriculture  or  occupations  connected 
with  it ;  all  these  men  possessed  machetes  and  there  were 
horses  enough  in  the  Island  for  all  of  them.  When  Maximo- 
Gomez  arrived  in  the  Province  of  Havana  in  January  last 
and  marched  to  Pinar  del  Rio  with  Maceo,  after  having 
destroyed  the  crops  of  tobacco  and  sugar  cane,  what  hope 
had  these  laborers  of  being  able  to  earn  a  living  ?     None. 

Want  spread  through  the  Island;  the  wealth  of  the 
country  was  destroyed  for  the  time  being — for  it  is  as  easy 
to  destroy  as  it  is  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  an  army  can 
defend  what  cannot  be  defended.  In  the  times  of  the 
barbarian  irruptions  the  people  were  pastoral ;  agriculture 
was  not  possible.  In  proportion  as  the  peoples  became 
civilized  the  cultivation  of  the  ground  extended,  assuring 
the  subsistence  and  the  welfare  of  the  people. 

In  spite  of  the  method  of  warfare  which  the  insurgents 
have  pursued  in  Cuba,  destroying  its  actual  prosperity  and 
well-being  in  tJie  name  of  the  prosperity  and  liberty  of 
Cuba,  which  is  the  plainest  proof  that  the  leaders  of  the 
insurrection  had  nothing  there  to  lose ;  that  is  to  say,  that 
they  were  foreigners  in  the  country ;  those  who  had  lost 
all  or  nearly  all  they  had,  and  those  who  could  lose 
nothing,  because  they  had  nothing  to  lose,  allowed  the 
wave  to  sweep  over  them  and  remained  quiet;  not  even 
then  did  they  join  in  the  insurrection. 

The  revolutionists  claim  that  they  have  40,000  men 
under  their  flag;  it  is  probable  that  the  number  is  exag- 
gerated, for,  eager  as  they  are  to  exaggerate  everything 

—  164  — 


concerning  the  revolution,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
they  would  tell  the  truth  in  regard  to  a  fact  so  important, 
morally  and  materially ;  but  in  any  case,  do  40, 000  men 
(of  whom  only  8,000  or  10,000  are  known  to  be  engaged 
in  any  regular  kind  of  warfare)  form  the  majority  in  a 
country  which  has  among  its  population  200,000  men  of 
like  conditions  with  those  of  the  40, 000  mentioned  ? 

And  the  few  professional  men  and  men  of  education 
who  have  joined  the  insurgents,  are  they  of  more  weight 
than  the  numbers  in  the  Island  who  for  many  years  past 
have  been  laboring  for  their  country's  welfare? 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  in  Cuba  the  majority  of 
the  population,  owing  to  the  culture  and  enlightenment 
of  the  higher  classes,  and  the  prosperous  condition  of  the 
lower,  are  opposed  to  war  as  a  means  of  obtaining  inde- 
pendence, for  if  the  contrary  were  the  case  the  insurgents 
would  have  not  merely  30,000  or  40,000  men,  but  three  or 
four  times  that  number;  it  would  be  a  general  conflagra- 
tion. The  seat  of  government  or  capital  of  the  republic 
would  not  at  the  present  time  need  to  be  Cubitas,  a  moun- 
tain hamlet  in  the  most  solitary  part  of  the  least  populous 
Province  of  Cuba. 

The  revolutionists  who  carry  on  the  war  from  New 
York,  in  their  eagerness  to  gain  sympathizers  outside  of 
Cuba,  constantly  publish  bulletins  or  fictitious  telegrams 
and  letters  relating  inhuman  acts  of  the  Spanish  soldiers. 
"  The  inhuman  manner  in  zuhieh  the  tvar  is  carried  on  in 
Cuba.''  Which  is  folly,  because  war  is  human  and  peculiar 
to  humanity.  Other  creatures  have  fights  with  each  other 
at  certain  periods,  but  to  kill  one  another  at  every  period, 
as  men  have  done  since  the  world  began,  is  peculiar  to  the 
human  race. 

War  is  barbarous,  and  as  such  it  is  natural  that  it  should 
be  cruel;  to  pretend  that  war  shall  be  carried  on  and  no- 
body shall  be  killed,  or  shall  be  'kiWed  carefully  and  wit  hotit 
being  hurt,  is  absurd.     War  is  a  terrible  evil  which  can  be 

—  165  — 


terminated  speedily  only  by  heroic  measures.  And  the 
only  good  thing  there  can  be  about  a  war  is  that  it  should 
terminate  speedily. 

In  the  Franco- Prussian  war  the  Germans  hunted  the 
French  peasants  with  the  pretext  that  they  were  or  might 
be  sharpshooters.  These,  it  is  well  known,  did  not  wear 
a  uniform  in  order  that  they  might  not  be  distinguishable 
from  the  peasants. 

In  the  United  States  the  Confederates  treated  their 
prisoners  cruelly  in  Andersonville,  Salisbury  and  Rich- 
mond. They  slaughtered  the  garrison  at  Fort  Pillow  after 
it  had  surrendered.  In  the  Southeast  the  butcheries  of 
the  guerillas  of  Quantrell  are  still  remembered. 

'  The  Federals,  on  their  side,  have  been  accused  of  refus- 
ing for  a  long  time  to  exchange  prisoners  for  those  who 
were  subjected  to  the  worst  treatment  in  the  Southern 
prisons;  they  burned  Columbia,  the  beautiful  capital  of 
South  Carolina,  and  also  Atlanta.  The  march  of  General 
Sherman  through  Georgia  was  marked  by  the  destruction 
of  that  region ;  they  burned  Richmond,  and  in  the  valley 
of  the  Shenandoah  the  devastation  and  destruction  were 
complete.  No  one  can  forget  the  iniquitous  proclamation 
of  General  Butler  in  New  Orleans,  ordering  that  the  ladies 
who  either  by  act  or  word  should  offer  any  insult  to  the 
Federal  officers  or  soldiers  should  be  treated  as  public 
women. 

When  men  fight  in  war  they  become  converted  into  wild 
beasts;  the  animal  part  dominates  the  intellectual,  and  it 
has  but  one  object — to  destroy. 

For  this  reason  war  is  to  be  avoided,  and  the  war  in 
Cuba  was  neither  desired  by  the  majority  of  the  inhab- 
itants nor  necessitated  by  the  aspirations  for  liberty  of  the 
Cuban  people. 

The  majority  of  the  people,  in  conjunction  with  the 
Autonomist  party,  labored  for  reform,  and  in  a  large 
measure  successfully,  as  I  have  already  shown. 

—  188  — 


As  for  the  termination  of  the  war,  I  now  believe  that  it 
will  not  long  be  delayed,  though,  until  very  recently,  I 
had  grave  doubts  on  this  point,  arising  from  the  convic- 
tion founded  on  my  intimate  knowledge  of  the  country, 
that  the  insurrection,  like  all  other  civil  conflicts,  could 
not  be  terminated  by  force  of  arms  alone,  or  that  if  it 
could  be  so  terminated  it  would  be,  for  the  time  being, 
to  the  injury  of  Cuba,  and  therefore  of  Spain  as  well. 
To-day  the  attitude  of  the  Spanish  Liberal  party  in  favor 
of  the  reforms  and  the  declarations  of  the  Conservative 
Government  in  Congress  in  regard  to  establishing  them, 
at  the  same  time  that  military  operations  will  go  on,  make 
me  cherish  the  hope  that  this  strife  between  members  of 
the  same  family  will  soon  come  to  an  end. 

Seiior  Canovas  recognizes  the  necessity  of  granting  Cuba 
self-government,  a  decentralization  so  extreme  as  to  give 
the  country  a  large  part  of  the  administration  of  her  own 
affairs,  imposing  on  her  the  responsibility  of  the  adminis- 
tration, and  giving  the  public  employments  to  native 
Cubans;  a  resolution  which  it  is  to  be  regretted  the  Gov- 
ernment did  not  adopt  last  year  while  the  illustrious  Gen- 
eral Martinez  Campos  was  still  in  Cuba,  to  whom,  indeed, 
much  of  the  change  which  has  taken  place  in  Spain  with. 
respect  to  the  manner  of  terminating  the  insurrection  is 
undoubtedly  due. 

As  a  lover  of  my  country,  and  of  the  honor  of  my  ances- 
tors, which  is  for  me  symbolized  by  that  of  Spain,  I  have 
labored  for  the  cause  of  freedom  in  Cuba,  rejecting,  how- 
ever, revolutionary  methods  that  would  not  bring  liberty 
to  my  country,  but  would,  on  the  contrary,  bring  about  a 
period  of  ruin  and  desolation,  of  reaction  and  exhaustion  of 
the  forces  necessary  to  her  progress,  the  end  of  which  no 
one  could  foretell. 

A  sovereign  state,  imless  it  be  great  enough  to  make  it-- 
self  respected  and  to  be  able  to  maintain  its  rights  abroad, 
has  no  guarantee  whatever  of  liberty  or  peace ;  the  latter, 

—  167-^ 


especially,  will  depend  upon  the  interest  or  the  convenience 
of  the  neighboring-  nations,  if  they  are  the  stronger. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  colony  with  its  own  laws  and  with 
self-government,  but  tinder  the  sovereignty  of  a  strong 
state,  enjoys  all  the  rights  of  a  sovereign  state  and  the 
credit  and  respect  abroad  which  the  mother  country  enjoys, 
and  which  in  the  colony  becomes  converted  into  a  source 
of  constantly  increasing  progress  and  well-being  for  its 
inhabitants. 


168  - 


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•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 
(510)642-6753 

•  1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made 
4  days  prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


NOV  2  6  2004 


"^^T^mm^ 


bipHiH 


